The minutes of the Federal Reserve’s July meeting released on Wednesday showed that policymakers were more concerned about the risk of inflation from the impact of tariffs than the labor market as they debated interest rate policy.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Fed panel responsible for monetary policy decisions, voted 9-2 to leave the benchmark federal funds rate unchanged for the fifth straight meeting at a range of 4.25% to 4.5% in July.
That decision occurred despite the first dual dissent in favor of cutting rates since 1993, as Governors Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller supported a 25-basis-point cut due to risks they saw to the labor market.
“Participants generally pointed to risks to both sides of the Committee’s dual mandate, emphasizing upside risk to inflation and downside risk to employment,” the FOMC minutes said. “A majority of participants judged the upside risk to inflation as the greater of these two risks, while several participants viewed the two risks as roughly balanced, and a couple of participants considered downside risk to employment the more salient risk.”
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Author: Faith Novak
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