If you ꧒got a big raise recently, some Federal Re💎serve officials in charge of fighting inflation have a bone to pick. 

Policymakers at the Fed are concerned wage growth isn't slowing fast enough for inflation to fall to the 2% annual rate that the central bank targets, according to minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee released Wednesday.

The minutes shed light on what FOMC members were thinking in July when they decided to raise the Fed’s key interest rate to 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:its highest since 2001, the 11th rate hike since March 2022. By raising its benchmark fed funds rate, the Fed put upward pressure on 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:interest rates for a๊ll k𒊎inds of loans including mortgages and auto loans. The pressure makes borrowing harder and discourages spending in an effort to bring supply and demand more into balance.

Many economists believe rapid wage growth can stoke inflation in two ways: by putting more spending money in the pockets of workers, and by raising costs for businesses. Both outcomes 澳洲幸运5♉官方开奖结果体彩网:could lead to businesses raising prices. 

In July, median hourly wages had risen 6% over the previous 12 months, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s wage growth tracker, outpacing the 3.2% growth in consu🌠mer prices over the same period, as measured by the Consumer Price Index.

Whether the Fed should be so focused on wages is a matter of debate—a report by researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco in May showed that wages have played little to no role in the high inflation that took hold in the middle of 2021. 

Indeed, Jerome Powell, chairman of the Fed, downplayed how much wages were contributing to inflation during a press conference following the July meeting.

The FOMC minutes did little to change the outlook of traders who mostly are betting the Fed won’t raise its interest rate when it meets next in September, and will instead hold it ste⛎ady before beginning to🔜 cut it next year, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which forecasts rateꦍ hikes based on fed futures tradꩵing data.