Fed Minutes Show 2 Governors Sought Rate Cut in July

"Almost all participants viewed it as appropriate to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent at this meeting," the minutes of the July 29-30 meeting said.

- 

WASHINGTON - The two Federal Reserve policymakers who dissented against the US central bank's decision to leave interest rates unchanged in July appear not to have been joined by other policymakers in voicing support for lowering rates at that meeting, a readout of the gathering released on Aug. 20 showed.

Fed vice-chair for supervision Michelle Bowman and governor Christopher Waller both voted against the decision to leave the benchmark interest rate unchanged, favoring instead a quarter percentage point reduction to guard against further weakening of the job market.

It was the first time since 1993 that more than one Fed governor had dissented against a rate decision.

Not even 48 hours after the conclusion of July's meeting, data from the Labour Department appeared to validate the concerns of Ms. Bowman and Mr. Waller when it showed far fewer jobs than expected were created in July, a rise in the unemployment rate and a drop in the labor force participation rate to the lowest level since late 2022.

More unsettling, though, was a historic downward revision for estimates of employment in the previous two months.