Almost all Federal Reserve policymakers thought the economy could grow more quickly because of fiscal stimulus under the Trump administration and many were eyeing faster interest rate increases, minutes from the central bank's December meeting showed.
The minutes, released on Wednesday, showed how broadly views within the Fed are shifting in response to President-elect Donald Trump's promises of tax cuts, infrastructure spending and deregulation.
Policymakers were clear that the outlook for those policies remained uncertain, but they could, if implemented, stoke higher inflation which would lead the central bank to raise borrowing costs more aggressively.
"About half of the participants incorporated an assumption of more expansionary fiscal policy in their forecasts," according to the minutes from the Dec. 13-14 meeting, referring to the 17 policymakers who participated.
"Almost all also indicated that the upside risks to their forecasts for economic growth had increased," the minutes stated.
The central bank's policy-setting committee unanimously raised interest rates last month by a quarter of a point and policymakers signaled a faster pace of rate increases in 2017 than previously expected. That was seen as the Fed's first reaction to Trump's victory in the Nov. 8 election.
But the minutes showed policymakers might signal an even more aggressive path of rate increases if inflationary pressures rose. Trump campaigned on promises to double America's pace of economic growth and "rebuild" the country's infrastructure.
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Research Associate at Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) at Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University
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