The minutes of the February meeting of...

The minutes of the February meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee confirmed comments Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan made to Congress on Feb. 23 that the Fed had eased its grip on credit in an effort to stimulate economic growth in late January and early February. The minutes of the Feb. 9-10 meeting said the slight easing move was taken because of concerns at the time about a slowdown in business activity. Partly in response to that easing move, a variety of interest rates, including mortgage rates, fell by more than one-half percentage point. Major banks lowered their prime rate on Feb. 2 to 8.5%.