Federal Reserve policymakers expressed concerns about weak inflation and some favored halting interest rate hikes until inflation is under control, minutes released on Wednesday afternoon showed. Also weighing on the possibility of a delayed interest rate hike is the country’s unemployment rate which hit 4.3 percent in July, a 16-year low that was also hit briefly in May 2017.
According to Reuters, financial markets with depressed bond yields and record high stock indexes, as we are currently seeing in the United States, give approximately a 40 percent chance of a rate hike before the end of the year. Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said that the Fed’s monetary policy would not be based on aberrant data but would be based upon anticipated changes.
The minutes also showed that the Fed is ready to begin reducing its $4.2 trillion portfolio of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities as early as September, though Mester said there may be some delay between policy confirmation and its eventual implementation.
The dollar was down against most of its common trading partners in early Thursday trade. The Fed’s target inflation rate is 2 percent, a level not reached in more than five years. U.S. inflation was 1.5 percent in June.
The euro gained 0.16 percent against the dollar, trading at $1.1789 as of 10 a.m. HK/SIN. The dollar was also down against the yen, trading at 109.69 yen. The Australian dollar enjoyed the highest gains in early trade, up 0.25 percent. The dollar index eased 0.11 percent down to 93.37 .DXY.