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FOMC Excerpt: Added "Further" Due To Improved Conditions>

     WASHINGTON (MNI) - The following are selected excerpts from the 
Federal Open Market Committee minutes of the January 30-31 meeting, 
published Wednesday: 
     Members expected that, with further gradual adjustments in the 
stance of monetary policy, economic activity would expand at a moderate 
pace and labor market conditions would remain strong. In their 
discussion of the economic outlook, most members viewed the recent data 
bearing on real economic activity as suggesting a modestly stronger 
near-term outlook than they had anticipated at their meeting in 
December. In addition, financial conditions had remained accommodative, 
and the details of the tax legislation suggested that its effects on 
consumer and business spending  while still uncertain  might be a bit 
greater in the near term than they had previously thought. Although 
several saw increased upside risks to the near-term outlook for economic 
activity, members generally continued to judge the risks to that 
outlook as remaining roughly balanced. 
--
     Members expected that economic conditions would evolve in a manner 
that would warrant further gradual increases in the federal funds rate. 
They judged that a gradual approach to raising the target range would 
sustain the economic expansion and balance the risks to the outlook for 
inflation and unemployment. Members agreed that the strengthening in the 
near-term economic outlook increased the likelihood that a gradual 
upward trajectory of the federal funds rate would be appropriate. They 
therefore agreed to update the characterization of their expectation 
for the evolution of the federal funds rate in the postmeeting statement 
to point to further gradual increases while maintaining the target 
range at the current meeting. Members continued to anticipate that the 
federal funds rate would likely remain, for some time, below levels that 
were expected to prevail in the longer run. Nonetheless, they again 
stated that the actual path for the federal funds rate would depend on 
the economic outlook as informed by the incoming data. 
     ** MNI Washington Bureau: (202)371-2121 ** 
[TOPICS: MMUFE$,M$U$$$,MT$$$$]

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