Washington • The Federal Reserve isn’t about to launch another bond-buying program to boost the economy — at least not anytime soon.
Although some Fed officials are open to such a move, according to minutes of the Fed’s Jan. 24-25 policy-setting meeting, others believe the economy — which has come to life lately — would need to weaken before taking such action.
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The debate took place at a meeting in which the Fed decided to hold its benchmark interest rate at record lows until at least late 2014. One Fed official argued that the central bank might need to consider abandoning that plan to keep inflation low.
"The minutes did not show an urgency to pursue further measures, with the general tone seeming to be one of ‘wait-and-see,’ " said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR Inc. "So, if the economy loses steam, markets will begin to expect further action."
That seems even less likely now after recent data show the economy has picked up since that meeting.
Employers added 243,000 net jobs in January, the most since spring. That helped lower the unemployment rate for the fifth straight month, to 8.3 percent. Car sales are up, as is consumer borrowing. And U.S. factories reported having their best month of growth in five years.
The minutes, which were released Wednesday, show Fed officials expected only modest economic growth in the coming months with only gradual declines in the unemployment rate.
Members cited several factors that could weaken the recovery and warrant more action from the Fed. Among them a slowdown in economic activity abroad, U.S. budget cuts; further weakness in the already-depressed housing market, less borrowing by consumers, and increased volatility in financial markets because of Europe’s debt crisis.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told a Senate panel last week that the declining unemployment rate doesn’t capture the plight of millions who have stopped looking for work. His cautious view suggests the Federal Reserve plans to stick with the three-year time line, even if the unemployment rate continues to gradually decline.
At the January meeting, the central bank for the first time released forecasts for where individual Fed officials expected the key interest rate to be in the future. Those forecasts showed that some members foresee super low rates beyond 2014, while six members saw the increases starting in either 2013 or 2014.
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