Summary
Many participants saw downside risks to the economic outlook as elevated, "further underscoring the case for a rate cut at this meeting,'' according to minutes of the Oct. 29-30 Federal Open Market Committee session released Wednesday in Washington.
The FOMC lowered rates by a quarter percentage point at its October gathering, the third such move in three months.
The minutes showed "most participants" judged policy would be well calibrated after the Oct. 30 cut and "likely would remain so as long as incoming information about the economy did not result in a material reassessment of the economic outlook".
"Some" officials, however, had preferred to leave rates steady at the meeting because their forecasts for the economy remained favorable. A "few" also said cutting rates would raise financial stability risks.
Kansas City Fed President Esther George and Boston's Eric Rosengren voted against the rate cut, as they had in July and September, preferring to keep rates steady.
Trump has previously said that the Fed's failure to deploy negative rates was hurting the U.S.
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