Investing.com - Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee's July meeting signaled that several members wanted to see more economic data before raising rates again and showed quite a divide over when the next move might be appropriate.
"Members generally agreed that, before taking another step in removing monetary accommodation, it was prudent to accumulate more data in order to gauge the underlying momentum in the labor market and economic activity," minutes of the July 26-27 meeting showed.
The FOMC left the fed funds rate target range steady at 0.25% to 0.50% at its July meeting by a 9-1 vote. Kansas City Fed President Esther George dissented in favor of an immediate 25 basis point increase.
Besides George, the minutes said "Some other members anticipated that economic conditions would soon warrant taking another step in removing policy accommodation."
Still, "a couple members" wanted to wait for more evidence that inflation was moving back up and "would rise to 2% on a sustained basis."
"Several suggested that the Committee would likely have ample time to react if inflation rose more quickly than they currently anticipated, and they preferred to defer another increase in the federal funds rate until they were more confident that inflation was moving closer to 2% on a sustained basis," the minutes said.
A weak May jobs report worried the Fed in June, but by the July meeting, a couple voting members said the "recent pace of job gains remained well above that consistent with stable rates of labor utilization" though "several other members expressed concern" about the slower pace of job gains, and "noted that if that slowing turned out to be persistent, the case for increasing the target range for the federal funds rate in the near term would be less compelling."