Fed minutes show officials were divided on October rate cut

Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell after the Federal Open Market Committee meeting in Washington on Oct. 29. Powell said in unusually blunt terms in the post-meeting press conference that a rate cut at the Fed’s Dec. 9-10 meeting was not a 'foregone conclusion.'

A divided Federal Reserve cut interest rates last month even as policy makers cautioned that lower borrowing costs could risk undermining the fight to quell inflation that has been above the U.S. central bank’s 2-per-cent target for four and a half years, the minutes from the Oct. 28-29 meeting showed on Wednesday.

“Many participants were in favor of lowering the target range for the federal funds rate,” the minutes stated, while noting that some members of that group also would have been satisfied with leaving rates steady.