Some Fed officials backed rate hike in June, minutes show

Several members of the US Federal Reserve’s rate-setting committee supported another interest rate hike in June to tackle high inflation, but ultimately voted for a pause, the Fed announced Wednesday.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted unanimously last month to pause interest rate hikes after 10 consecutive increases, giving policymakers more time to assess the impact of rate hikes and recent banking stresses on the US economy.

At the same time, FOMC members forecast that two additional increases to its benchmark lending rate would likely be needed before the end of the year to bring inflation back down.

Minutes from the meeting published by the Fed on Wednesday show some FOMC members went into the meeting on June 13-14 favoring another quarter percentage-point hike to bring inflation back down towards the committee’s long-term target of two percent.

“Some participants indicated that they favored raising the target range for the federal funds rate 25 basis points at this meeting or that they could have supported such a proposal,” the Fed minutes showed.

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