The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy makers have stressed the need to maintain tight monetary policies as long as inflation remains at its currently unacceptably high levels.
The minutes of the Fed meeting, in which the US central bank raised interest rates by half a percentage point to the level of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent, indicated that the participants in the meeting stressed the need to maintain tight monetary policy so that inflation moves in a downward direction to reach the target level at 2 percent.
The meeting participants pointed out that historical experience makes them warn against easing monetary policy prematurely.
During the last meeting in December, the Fed eased interest rate hikes, after raising them more than once by 75 basis points, but easing after interest rates reached the highest level in about 15 years.
And the minutes of the US Federal Reserve meeting stated that officials will focus on the data as they define the features of monetary policy, while adhering to flexibility according to the data of the economy.
After the meeting, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that although there has been significant progress in the battle against inflation, the latter’s rise has begun to stop, but inflation levels will remain high for a while.
The Fed’s minutes also indicated that none of the committee members expect to ease interest rates during the current year.
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