Investing.com - Support for a rate hike this year rose as three members of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting who dissented at the last meeting may soon have the needed support for such a move, the minutes of the latest meeting showed Wednesday, with members noting a reasonable case could be made on both sides of the argument -- to increase rates or to wait for additional evidence on progress towards goals.
"Several members judged that it would be appropriate to increase the target range for the federal funds rate relatively soon if economic developments unfolded about as the Committee expected," the minutes of the Sept. 20-21 meeting said.
"(T)hey saw the new sentence in the third paragraph of the Committees statement -- a sentence indicating that the case for an increase in the federal funds rate had strengthened but that the Committee had decided, for the time being, to wait for further evidence of continued progress toward its objectives -- as reflecting this view, the minutes continued.
But overall, the minutes kept 2016 rate hike hopes alive, analysts said.
"The hawks are still the minority, despite repeatedly warning that holding off hiking now raises the risks of bigger increases and unpredictable downside growth risks later, but it won't take much, we think, to tip the committee into a majority in favor of tightening," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
Market expectations for a rate hike in December stood at 69.5%, according to the Investing.com Fed Rate Monitor Tool.