January 31 · Published February 21, 2006
Statement·Presser·Minutes·Policy
January 31, 2006 FOMC Minutes
Our reading
The minutes are consistent with the statement because they detail the FOMC's unanimous decision to raise the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 4-1/2 percent, and they elaborate on the same rationale—solid economic expansion, contained core inflation, and concerns about potential inflation pressures from resource utilization and energy prices—while also noting that further policy firming might be needed, mirroring the statement's language.
Our reading compares the minutes of the January 31 FOMC meeting with the FOMC statement issued at the end of that meeting, three weeks before the minutes were published.
Vote
- Susan S. Bies
- Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.
- Timothy F. Geithner
- Alan Greenspan
- Jack Guynn
- Donald L. Kohn
- Jeffrey M. Lacker
- Mark W. Olson
- Sandra Pianalto
- Janet L. Yellen
From the minutes
FOMC minutes
Notation Vote
By notation vote completed on December 30, 2005, the Committee unanimously approved the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting held on December 13, 2005.
Vincent R. Reinhart
Secretary
What changed from the previous meeting’s minutes
- The federal funds rate target was raised from 4 percent to 4.5 percent.
- The policy statement dropped the phrase "policy accommodation can be removed at a pace that is likely to be measured."
- The statement replaced it with "some further policy firming may be needed."
- The FOMC noted the economy seemed to be expanding at a solid pace, not just "fairly strong."
- The minutes reported that the future path of the funds rate "could no longer be prejudged with the previous degree of confidence."
- The meeting marked Alan Greenspan's last as a member of the FOMC.
Summary generated automatically from the two documents.