Policy-makers at U.S. Federal Reserve agreed when they met on June 27-28 that their predominant concern was still whether inflation would fail to recede as anticipated, according to minutes of the meeting released Thursday.
"Recent data on core consumer prices were encouraging," the minutes said, "but participants were wary of drawing any firm conclusions about future trends from a few monthly readings that could reflect transitory influences and remained concerned about forces that could contribute to inflation pressures."
Against this backdrop, participants agreed that "the risk that inflation would fail to moderate as expected remained their predominant concern," the minutes said.
At the June meeting, Fed policy-makers held a key interest rate steady at 5.25 percent for the eighth consecutive time since the same month of last year.
In their discussion of the economic situation and outlook, " participants noted that economic activity appeared to have expanded at a moderate pace on balance over the first half of year, " said the minutes.
They "continued to anticipate moderate economic growth in coming quarters, with growth rising gradually to a pace close to that of potential output," the minutes said.
The minutes also said that participants generally agreed the housing sector was likely to remain a drag on growth for some time yet and represented the most significant downside risk to the economic outlook.
But "spillovers from the strains in the housing market to consumption spending had apparently been quite limited to date."
"Participants generally anticipated moderate gains in consumption spending over coming months, supported by the strong labor market and solid growth in personal income," said the minutes.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article