Many Federal Reserve policymakers said they saw increasing risks facing the US economy as they assessed the impact of the market turmoil that has erupted in 2016 amid plunging commodity prices and confusion over China’s currency policies.
Minutes for the January meeting released yesterday showed that Fed policymakers were wary of rushing to premature conclusions about the implications of the month’s financial turbulence, but most agreed that the outlook had become more clouded and uncertain.
Several argued that it would be “prudent” to wait for more evidence about the underlying strength of the economy and inflation before embarking on any further interest-rate increases, according to the record of the meeting on January 26-27. If the slide in shares, strong dollar and tighter financing costs persisted, the effects “may be roughly equivalent to those from further firming in monetary policy,” the record showed.