Federal Reserve minutes: Some officials wanted to raise interest rates last month

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some Federal Reserve officials pushed to raise the Fed’s key interest rate by one-quarter of a percentage point at their meeting last month to fight high inflation, though the central bank ultimately decided to forgo a rate hike. In a sign of growing division among the policymakers, some officials favored a quarter-point increase or said they “could have supported such a proposal,” according to the minutes of the June 13-14 meeting. In the end, the 11 voting members of the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee agreed unanimously to skip a hike after 10 straight increases. But they signaled that they may raise rates twice more this year, beginning as soon as this month.