WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve on Tuesday released minutes from its highly divisive meeting earlier this month, which concluded with a vote to lower interest rates again that appeared to be an even closer call than the final vote indicated.
Officials expressed a variety of opinions during the Dec. 9-10 meeting, according to the summary provided a day ahead of its customary release due to the New Year’s holiday.
Ultimately, the Federal Open Market Committee approved a quarter percentage point cut by a 9-3 vote, the most dissents since 2019 as officials debated over the need to support the labor market against concerns over inflation. The move lowered the key funds rate to a range of 3.5%-3.75%.
“Most participants judged that further downward adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate would likely be appropriate if inflation declined over time as expected,” the document stated.
With that, though, came misgivings over how aggressive the FOMC should be in the future.
