Investors have been betting the Fed will cut interest rates later this year partly on concern over inflation running persistently below its 2% target, which prices have done for most of the last seven years.
On the economic outlook, “many participants suggested that their own concerns from earlier in the year about downside risks from slowing global economic growth and the deterioration in financial conditions or similar concerns expressed by their business contacts had abated,” according to the minutes.
GDP expanded at a 3.2% annual pace in the first quarter,surpassing expectations, and unemployment hit a 49-year low in April. The U.S. expansion is on track to become the longest on record in July.
--With assistance from Jordan Yadoo.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.