Some on Fed Wanted Larger February Hike

Federal Reserve policymakers agreed to raise short-term interest rates modestly at a meeting in February, even as some of them thought a more aggressive stance might be needed to keep inflation at bay. But convinced that last month’s quarter-percentage point rate rise was unlikely to be the last in the Fed’s now 9-month-old tightening cycle, the 10 voting members of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee voted to present a united front, minutes of their Feb. 1-2 meeting showed. Fed policymakers met again this week, and again opted to lift both the federal funds bank-lending rate and the discount rate by 0.25 percentage point each. The minutes said “a few” unidentified members had wanted to raise the key federal funds rate by 0.5 point immediately, while “others” had taken comfort from the knowledge that the Fed may have to make more drastic rate moves later in the year.