Fed officials expect longer wait for rate cut

 "Fed Whisperer" Nick Timiraos wrote that Fed officials concluded at their recent meeting that they need to keep interest rates at their current level for longer than previously expected. Last month, US inflation data disappointed for the third consecutive month. According to the latest meeting minutes, although officials still believe that rates are high enough to restrain economic activity and lower inflation, they hinted that they are less certain about the degree of policy restriction. Unspecified officials mentioned that if inflation risks make tightening policy reasonable, they would be willing to further tighten policy. In the second half of last year, price pressures slowed significantly, and Fed officials hinted in March that they might be ready to start cutting interest rates again if there were another one or two months of mild inflation. However, a series of first-quarter data shows that price pressures in the economy are heating up, and unless the job market unexpectedly weakens, the Fed has been forced to shelve any consideration of starting to cut interest rates in the coming months.