WASHINGTON >> The Federal Reserve will go into a policy meeting next week with its view of the economy obscured by a U.S. government shutdown that has suspended the release of key data, a less-than-ideal situation for policymakers divided over which risks deserve the most attention.

Official employment data hasn’t been released since the shutdown of the federal government began on Oct. 1, but what information that remains available points to still-weak job growth. The Fed’s own economic field reporting, still underway at the self-funded central bank, showed possible cracks in consumer spending, and recent business confidence surveys pointed to a dip.

Yet businesses are also warning of coming price increases at a time when inflation is lodged above the Fed’s 2% target, estimates of overal

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