On Tuesday, November 21, 2023, the minutes of the Oct 31-Nov 1 FOMC meeting were released. The minutes of the Fed meeting showed that the participants and committee members united on the process to proceed carefully on future interest-rate moves and base any further tightening on progress toward their inflation plan. The Fed policymakers agreed on the strategy to proceed carefully at their most recent meeting in Washington. Therefore, the Federal Open Market Committee’s every decision will be based on the totality of incoming information. You should stick with this page until you read it completely as we have mentioned all the imperative points of the US Fed Reserve meeting from October 31 to November 1. Scroll down.
FOMC Agreed To Proceed Carefully On Future Interest-Rate Moves
According to the minutes of the committee meeting, “All participants agreed that the committee was in a position to proceed carefully and that policy decisions at every meeting would continue to be based on the totality of incoming information,” Despite a run of data showing strong hiring and consumption, which boosted overall economic growth the US central bankers held the bar lending rate in a range of 5.25 percent to 5.5 percent for the second time in a row at the meeting. Read the next section for more details.
The meeting minutes added, “Participants anticipated that the data arriving in coming months would help explain the extent to which the disinflation process was continuing, aggregate demand was mediating in the face of tighter financial and credit conditions, and labor markets were reaching a better balance between supply and demand,” In Washington, the officials of the Federal Reserve assembled for the meeting after the US government’s 10-year treasuries surpassed 5 percent which was the highest in 16 years. Some officials were stunned by the increase in longer-term borrowing costs.
The minutes also stated that the participants emphasized that longer-term yields could be volatile and that the factors behind the recent increase were uncertain. “Participants noted that inflation had mediated over the past year but stressed that present inflation remained high and well above the committee’s longer-run goal of 2 percent. They also stressed that further evidence would be required for them to be confident that inflation was clearly on a path to the committee’s 2 percent objective.” Jerome Powell the chair of the Fed told an IMF panel that inflation gave them a few head fakes. Therefore, they would move carefully to address both the risk by a few good months of data and overtightening.