MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Minutes show Fed could be ready for an interest rate in June

The suggestion that a rate increase in June is firmly on the table suggests the Fed is closer to tightening monetary policy again

Federal Reserve officials consider the United States economy could be ready for another interest rate increase in June, according to the minutes from the central bank's April policy meeting released on Wednesday. Most participants in the policy-setting committee's April 26-27 meeting said they wanted to see signs that economic growth was picking up in the second quarter and that employment and inflation were firming, the minutes showed.

 “Then it likely would be appropriate for the committee to increase the target range for the federal funds rate in June,” according to the minutes.

The suggestion that a rate increase in June is firmly on the table suggests the Fed is closer to tightening monetary policy again, sooner than Wall Street had expected. The Fed lifted rates in December for the first time in nearly a decade.

Prices for futures contracts on the Fed's benchmark overnight lending rate implied that investors saw a 34% chance of a rate increase next month, up from 19% shortly before the release of the minutes, according to CME Group.

U.S. stocks fell and the dollar extended gains against a basket of currencies after the minutes were released. Treasury yields rose, with the yield on 30-year U.S. government debt rising to a two-week high.

Recent data has made policymakers more confident that inflation is rising toward the Fed's 2% target and they also expressed fewer concerns about a global economic slowdown, according to the minutes. Some policymakers at the meeting were worried about a slowdown in U.S. economic growth during the first quarter, when GDP expanded at an annual rate of 0.5%, a two-year low.

But others argued that ongoing robust job growth suggested the economy had not gone off the track and that the growth data could be flawed.

Data since the end of April has pointed to a pickup in consumer spending and manufacturing output, bolstering the view that economic growth was accelerating after stalling in the first quarter. Several Fed officials in recent weeks have stressed that a rate increase might be warranted in June.