Fed officials unanimously agreed to raise interest rates by 25 basis points at their meeting this month on May 25, but were divided on whether further hikes were necessary, with more officials signaling they were ready to pause.
Several participants noted that if the economy develops in line with their current expectations, there may not be a need to tighten policy further after this meeting,” according to the minutes of the latest Fed meeting.
Others argued that “further tightening may be warranted at future meetings” as they expected “the return of inflation to 2 percent may continue to be unacceptably slow”.
Over the past two weeks, some officials have said that inflation and economic activity have not slowed enough to justify an end to rate hikes.
But others, including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, have signaled they may prefer not to raise rates, assessing the impact of past hikes and stress on the banking sector.