After several unexpectedly high inflation readings, Federal Reserve officials concluded at a meeting earlier this month that it would take longer than they previously thought for inflation to cool enough to justify reducing their key interest rate, now at a 23-year high. Minutes of the meeting showed that officials also debated whether their benchmark rate was exerting enough of a drag on the economy to further slow inflation. Many officials noted that they were uncertain how restrictive the Fed’s rate policies are. That suggests that it wasn’t clear to the policymakers whether they were doing enough to restrain price growth. High interest rates “may be having smaller effects than in the past,” the minutes said.
