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U.S. growth slowdown 'required' to beat inflation: Fed minutes
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The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 14, 2022. /Reuters
The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 14, 2022. /Reuters

The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 14, 2022. /Reuters

A slowdown of U.S. economic growth and the country's job market will be "required" to bring down inflation, Federal Reserve (Fed) officials said in a readout of last month's policy meeting released on Wednesday.

Fed officials also said prices remain "unacceptably high," and inflation has "not yet responded" to increased interest rates.

Officials agreed they needed to raise interest rates to a more restrictive level to meet their goal of lowering inflation, saying that "a significant reduction in inflation would likely lag that of aggregate demand."

In the meeting minutes of the Fed's September meeting, many U.S. central bank officials emphasized that the "cost of taking too little action" to bring down inflation likely outweighed "the cost of taking too much action."

That said, the minutes also contained a hint of a downshift in the pace of future monetary tightening, with several policymakers saying it would be important to "calibrate" the pace of further rate hikes to reduce the risk of "significant adverse effects" on the economy.

In September, the Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee increased the key interest rate by 0.75 percentage point for the third consecutive time, continuing its forceful action to tamp down inflation, which has surged to the highest level in 40 years.

Another 75-basis-point rate hike is likely coming next month, with a further half-percentage-point hike in December, wrote Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon.

U.S. interest rate hikes are pushing global prices higher at a time of food crisis, presenting the world with "a perfect storm," the EU's top diplomat warned this week.

"Everybody's running to increase interest rates – these will bring us to a world recession," EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell told EU ambassadors in an annual gathering.

A surging U.S. dollar is making basic goods in other countries unaffordable unless central banks follow the Fed's lead, he explained.

"There is no other way otherwise the capital will flow [elsewhere]," he said.

Read more: PIIE lowers 2023 U.S. growth outlook, pessimistic towards soft landing

(With input from Reuters, AFP)

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