The question facing Federal Reserve officials ahead of their policy meeting next month is no longer whether they will raise interest rates but rather by how much.
Another strong inflation report released Thursday is intensifying a debate inside the central bank over how to speed up a series of interest-rate increases this spring to ease surging prices and cool the economy, according to officials’ most recent public comments and interviews.
Consumer prices in January rose 7.5% from a year earlier, and so-called core inflation, which excludes more volatile food and energy items, rose 6%. Both were their highest levels in 40 years.
Fed officials in the months ahead are closely looking for signs that the month-over-month pace of price increases will slow, and Thursday’s report brought little comfort on this front. Inflation pressures continued to broaden in January,…
