Washington - Federal Reserve policymakers expressed concern last month that raising interest rates too soon could pour cold water on the US economic recovery, and fretted over the impact of dropping "patient" from the central bank's rate guidance.
The minutes from the Fed's January 27-28 policy-setting meeting, released on Wednesday, show officials grappling to square solid US economic growth with the weakness in international markets as well as worrying about falling inflation expectations in the United States.
Fed officials debated the impact that stubbornly low inflation measures were having on the central bank's confidence in moving ahead with the rate hike plan, the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee meeting showed.