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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- A majority of members of the Federal Open Market Committee believed that the Fed would only have to engineer a few more rate hikes to keep inflation in check, according to a summary of the discussion at their Dec. 13 meeting released on Tuesday.
Most members said the outlook for policy was that "the number of additional firming steps required probably would not be large," according to the report. Read the minutes.
The summary noted that views differed among members about how much more tightening might be required.
FOMC officials did agree that the outlook for monetary policy was becoming "considerably less certain" and that decisions going forward would depend more on incoming economic data.
At its closed-door meeting on Dec. 13, the FOMC hiked rates for the 13th straight time to 4.25% and indicated "some further measured policy firming" may be needed. See full story.
The financial markets have been waiting to get a better definition of the word "some." Now, market participants can argue over the phrase "not large."
According to the summary, Fed officials generally anticipated that more rate hikes would be needed.
The minutes suggest that Fed officials arguing for fewer tightening moves were pointing to "lags in the effect of policy firming on the economy," while those favoring more tightening pointed out that rates had been very low for quite some time as well as the possibility that continued strong growth might put upward pressure on prices.
In their discussion of the economy, Fed members seemed pleased with signs of strong economic growth and benign inflation.
Concerns of near-term inflation pressures "had eased somewhat" since November, the summary said.
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