On April 13th, the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s March meeting mentioned that many participants pointed out that during the policy review, they considered whether it was appropriate to keep the interest rate target range stable at this meeting.
Doing so would allow more time to assess the financial and economic impact of recent banking developments and the cumulative tightening of monetary policy, they noted.
However, those participants also noted that actions taken by the Fed in coordination with other government agencies have helped stabilize conditions in the banking sector and reduce near-term risks to economic activity and inflation.
Therefore, given rising inflation, strong recent economic data, and their commitment to bringing inflation down to the Committee’s long-term objective of 2 percent, these participants considered a quarter-point increase in the rate target range to be appropriate.