The Fed ultimately raised its benchmark overnight interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point at the meeting, which took place less than two weeks after top U.S. officials spent a weekend scrambling to design emergency measures to halt a possible deposit run against regional lenders following the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
Fed officials on Tuesday showed the outlines of the emerging debate ahead of their May 2-3 policy meeting., a vice chair and permanent voter on the central bank's rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, kept the focus on inflation and the likely need for at least one more rate increase.was more skeptical, preaching patience in considering further rate increases.
Before SVB's failure on March 10, Powell had said high inflation might even warrant a half-percentage-point hike.