The minutes of the Federal Reserve meeting showed that officials were deeply divided at the December meeting.

According to the latest minutes of the Federal Reserve meeting, the FOMC agreed to cut interest rates at its December meeting, but engaged in a deep and detailed debate regarding the risks currently facing the U.S. economy. The minutes indicate that, given the various risks to the U.S. economy, even some officials who supported the rate cut acknowledged that "this decision was the result of weighing the pros and cons, or they might have supported maintaining the target interest rate range unchanged." Some participants stated that, based on their economic outlook, following this meeting's reduction of the interest rate range, it might be necessary to maintain the target interest rate range unchanged for some time. The debate at this meeting revealed disagreements among officials regarding both tightening and easing monetary policy, an unusual outcome for the Fed, and the first such occurrence at two consecutive meetings. (Jinshi)