Federal Reserve officials in their July discussions appeared to move closer to their first interest rate hike in nearly a decade but expressed wide-ranging concerns about wages, inflation and a significant slowdown in China.
Minutes of their July 28-29 discussions released Wednesday show that officials believed they were close to achieving their goals on employment. But they were split on whether inflation had risen enough to justify an rate increase.
"Most judged that the conditions for policy firming had not yet been achieved, but they noted that conditions were approaching that point," the minutes said.
On China, Fed officials believed that a big drop in the Chinese stock market would have only limited implications for growth prospects in the world's second-largest economy.