Fed Minutes Showed Policymakers Were Still Intent on Easing Inflation
Federal Reserve officials believed that they needed to do more to slow the economy and wrestle painfully rapid inflation back under control as of their meeting early this month, minutes from the gathering showed.
The notes, released on Wednesday, showed that “all participants” continued to believe that rates needed to rise by more, and that “a number” of them thought that monetary policy might need to be even more restrictive in light of easing conditions in financial markets in the months prior.
And policy was expected to stay at a setting in which it restricts the economy “until the incoming data provided confidence that inflation was on a sustained downward path to 2 percent, which was likely to take some time,” the minutes showed, referring to the Fed’s official goal for annual price increases.
The takeaway is that policymakers were still intently focused on wrestling inflation back under control even before a spate of recent data releases showed that the economy has maintained a surprising amount of momentum at the start of 2023. In the weeks since the Fed last met, inflation data have exhibited unexpected staying power, and a range of data points have suggested that both the job market and consumer spending remain robust. A release on Friday is expected to show that the Fed’s preferred inflation indicator climbed rapidly on a monthly basis in January, and that consumption grew at a solid pace.
That creates a challenge for Fed officials, who had been hoping that their policy changes last year would slowly but steadily weigh on the economy, cooling demand and forcing companies to stop raising prices so quickly. If demand holds up, businesses are more likely to find that they can continue to charge more without driving away their customers.
Inflation F.A.Q.
What is inflation? Inflation is a loss of purchasing power over time, meaning your dollar will not go as far tomorrow as it did today. It is typically expressed as the annual change in prices for everyday goods and services such as food, furniture, apparel, transportation and toys.
What causes inflation? It can be the result of rising consumer demand. But inflation can also rise and fall based on developments that have little to do with economic conditions, such as limited oil production and supply chain problems.
Is inflation bad? It depends on the circumstances. Fast price increases spell trouble, but moderate price gains can lead to higher wages and job growth.
How does inflation affect the poor? Inflation can be especially hard to shoulder for poor households because they spend a bigger chunk of their budgets on necessities like food, housing and gas.
Can inflation affect the stock market? Rapid inflation typically spells trouble for stocks. Financial assets in general have historically fared badly during inflation booms, while tangible assets like houses have held their value better.
Central bankers have raised interest rates at the fastest pace since the 1980s over the past year, pushing them from near-zero at this time in 2022 to more than 4.5 percent as of this month. Officials signaled in December that they might need to raise rates to above 5 percent this year, but those estimates have been creeping higher, to perhaps above 5.25 percent. And key policymakers have been clear that if the economy fails to slow as expected, they will do more to make sure momentum cools.
Higher interest rates weigh on the economy by making it expensive for households to borrow to buy a new car or purchase a house, and by making it pricier for businesses to expand on credit. As those transactions stall, the aftershocks trickle through the economy, slowing not just the housing and automobile markets but also the labor market and retail and services spending as a whole.
But the full effect of policy takes time to play out, which makes it difficult for central bankers to assess in real time how much policy tightening is exactly the right amount to slow the economy and bring inflation to heel. Overdoing it could come at a cost: Leaving more people out of work, with lower incomes and more limited prospects, than is necessary.
Yet the 1970s taught central bankers that allowing inflation to remain high for a long time without decisively acting to bring it under control is also a painful error. Back then, the Fed allowed inflation to run higher for years, and it eventually jumped so out of control that they had to institute draconian rate increases to wrangle prices. Unemployment jumped to double-digit levels.
Officials slowed their rate increases in February, and have signaled that they will continue to raise rates by a modest quarter point per meeting pace in coming meetings. Some policymakers — including Loretta Mester at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland — have been clear in public that they would have preferred a bigger move at the latest meeting.
Understand Inflation and How It Affects You
- Inflation Chickens: As a spike in egg prices spooks consumers, some are taking steps to secure their own future supply by snapping up chicks that will grow into egg-laying chickens.
- Food Prices: Rising prices at grocery stores and restaurants have changed the way many seniors shop and eat out. For some, it could affect their health or leave them feeling isolated.
- Social Security: The cost-of-living adjustment, which helps the benefit keep pace with inflation, is set for 8.7 percent in 2023. Here is what that means.
- Tax Rates: The I.R.S. has made inflation adjustments for 2023, which could push many people into a lower tax bracket and reduce tax bills.
While the minutes acknowledged that “a few participants” would have supported or even preferred a half-point move, they said that smaller adjustment were seen as a way to balance risks.
Almost all observed that slowing “would allow for appropriate risk management as the Committee assessed the extent of further tightening needed to meet the committee’s goals,” the minutes said.
Now the question is just how high rates must rise, and how long they will stay there.
The challenge for central bankers is that several factors playing out in early 2023 suggest that the economy retains substantial strength. Americans are getting jobs and winning raises, shoring up household incomes. They are still sitting on savings piles amassed during the pandemic, though those are shrinking. Many older households have just received a cost of living increase of 8.7 percent in their first Social Security check of the year.
Even as of the Jan. 31 to Feb. 1 meeting, officials saw several reasons that inflation might remain too high: China’s reopening from coronavirus lockdowns could add to demand, Russia’s war in Ukraine could cause supply disruptions, and the labor market might stay strong for longer than expected, according to the minutes.
Yet policymakers also saw reasons inflation might fade quickly. Among them, many global central banks have raised interest rates, and the United States could be vulnerable to tipping into an outright recession after a period of more subdued growth. Plus, the country could face financial or economic problems if Congress’ debate over raising the debt limit drags out.
“A number of participants stressed that a drawn-out period of negotiations to raise the federal debt limit could pose significant risks to the financial system and the broader economy,” the minutes said.
