Federal Reserve is “approaching” rate hike: Members say they need more evidence of wage growth first
Minutes from the Federal Reserve's July policy meeting offered no indication that the central bank intends to raise interest rates in September.
With uncertainty remaining over wage growth and inflation, the officials “generally agreed” that more information was needed for a hike to go ahead.
Most judged that the conditions for policy firming had not yet been achieved, but they noted that conditions were approaching that point.
US interest rates have not been raised from their near-zero level since 2006, and analysts have been looking out for a hint that the bank will raise rates at its next committee meeting in September.
In order for the change to be made, the Fed has been firm in its requirement for inflation to be on course for the two per cent target.
Some participants expressed the view that the incoming information had not yet provided grounds for reasonable confidence that inflation would move back to two percent over the medium term and that the inflation outlook thus might not soon meet one of the conditions established by the [Fed] for initiating a firming of policy.