WASHINGTON — Fed officials disagreed widely when they met last month on when they would be ready to lift interest rates from record lows.
Minutes of the March 17-18 meeting released Wednesday reveal that several policymakers predicted a rate hike in June, while others concerned about low inflation didn’t think a rate hike would be warranted until later this year. Still others said the economy wouldn’t be strong enough for an increase until 2016.
The Fed’s benchmark interest rate has been near zero since December 2008.
In the statement the Fed issued after the meeting, it signaled it was moving closer to a rate increase by dropping language it had been using since December that it would be “patient” before starting to raise its benchmark rate.
The minutes stated that “almost all” the policymakers agreed on the wording change.
With the economy improving, “they preferred language that would provide the committee with the flexibility to subsequently adjust the target range for the federal funds rate on a meeting-by-meeting basis,” the minutes said.
But the minutes showed the group was split over the timing of the first rate hike.
