ECONOMY Federal Reserve minutes reveal change in thinking

A challenge facing the new chairman is when to stop boosting interest rates.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal Reserve policy-makers indicated last month that interest-rate decisions could become less predictable, relying more heavily on short-term economic prospects than on more sweeping monetary strategy.
Minutes of the Fed's closed-door meeting Jan. 31 -- Chairman Alan Greenspan's last -- were released Tuesday and offered insight into policy-makers' thinking as they contemplated what might be the appropriate end point in the Fed's nearly two-year credit tightening campaign and as they prepared for the new chief, Ben Bernanke.
"Although the stance of policy seemed close to where it needed to be given the current outlook, some future policy firming might be needed" to keep inflation and the economy on an even keel, according to the minutes.
One of the first challenges facing Bernanke, whose first day on the job was Feb. 1, will be to work with his Fed colleagues and decide when to stop boosting rates. If he stops too soon, inflation could get out of hand. If he waits too long, the economy could be hurt.
Bernanke's first interest-rate meeting is March 27-28. In congressional testimony last week, he hinted that another rate increase could come at that time to help keep inflation in check.
Another rates boost
At the January meeting, the Federal Reserve boosted a key interest rate, called the federal funds rate, by one-quarter percentage point to 4.50 percent, the highest in nearly five years.
That was the 14th increase of that size since the Fed began to tighten credit in June 2004.
The funds rate, the interest that banks charge one another on overnight loans, is the Fed's main tool for influencing economic activity.
In the future, though, the path of interest rates might not be nearly as predictable as it had been, Fed policy-makers indicated in the minutes.
"All members agreed that the future path for the funds rate would depend increasingly on economic developments and could no longer be prejudged with the previous degree of confidence," the minutes stated.
Long-term approach
The rate increase in January was part of a long-term process in which the Fed strategy was focused on lifting rates from historically low levels to more normal ones.
Before the Fed embarked on its rate-raising campaign, the funds rate had been sliced to 1 percent, a 46-year low, in an effort to help the economy get back on its feet after the 2001 recession, terror attacks and a wave of accounting scandals that rocked Wall Street.
"They are definitely off auto pilot," said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Bank of America's Investment Strategies Group.
"Although another increase at the end of March seems likely, the statement in the minutes reinforces the view that future policy steps will depend more on the behavior of economic statistics."
On Wall Street, stocks dropped as the Fed minutes and other economic information cemented investors' feelings that more rate increases are a near certainty.
The Dow Jones industrials lost 46.26 points to close at 11,069.06.