March 2018 FOMC Meeting Minutes: Uncertainty About The Effects Of New Trade Tariffs

The 21 March 2018 meeting statement presented the actions taken. This post covers the economic discussion during this FOMC meeting between the members (minutes were released today). There continued to be considerable discussion on inflation and timing on the next federal funds rate increase, and an interesting quote:

… PCE price inflation rate would likely shift upward when the March data are released because the effects of the outsized decline in the prices of cell phone service plans in March of last year will drop out of that calculation. …

Analyst Opinion of these minutes

These meeting minutes continue to contain an inordinate discussion on inflation. But the most interesting discussion was the timing of future federal funds rate increases (see last paragraph of “Participants’ Views ….”

The interesting points are highlighted in bold below. Econintersect publishes below the views of the FOMC members and ignores the reports given to the members. We are looking for a glimpse of insight into the minds of the FOMC members.