Fed to weigh financial markets in rate decisions: Jan minutes

Washington

FINANCIAL markets turmoil has clouded the US economic outlook and will be a key factor in charting interest rate increases, the minutes of the Federal Reserve's January meeting showed on Wednesday.

Participants at the Jan 26-27 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) "emphasized that the timing and pace of adjustments will depend on future economic and financial market developments and their implications for the medium-term economic outlook", the minutes said.

Generally, the policymakers saw that risks to the US economic outlook had worsened since they lifted interest rates for the first time in more than nine years in mid-December, by a modest quarter percentage point.

Intending to normalise rates after keeping them near zero for seven years to support the economy's recovery from the Great Recession, the Fed at that time had envisioned four rate hikes this year in gradual step…