‘Many’ Fed

Federal Open Market Committee, which sets benchmark US interest rates, have strenuously disagreed over the course of this year’s policy meetings, however, pointing to slack in labor markets and the absence of any upward trend in price pressures.

“Many participants,” according to the minutes released Wednesday, felt another rate hike was “likely to be war- ranted in the near-term” if data on the economy remain on the current path.

“A few other participants thought that additional policy firming should be deferred until incoming - tion was clearly on a path toward the committee’s symmetric two percent objective.”

Raising rates too soon could also cause the public “to question the committee’s commitment” to its two percent target.

Since the last meeting, the Consumer Price Index showed a modest uptick in a closely watched measure of inflation but economists have said more data may be needed to determine whether this points to a

- sure, the so-called core annual measure of the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, which strips out volatile food and fuel prices, was unchanged at 1.3 percent in September, well below the Fed’s two percent target — which it has not hit in more

Elsewhere, some members said “el- markets combined with low volatility raised concerns about “a potential

“They worried that a sharp reversal in asset prices could have damaging effects on the economy,” according to the minutes.

Other FOMC members countered, however, that reforms adopted in the - sis had left banks with greater capital strength, “increasing the resilience reversals in valuations.”