Policymakers had a "sense that (more) accommodation may
be appropriate before long," the central bank said on Tuesday.
In minutes of the its last policy-setting session held Sept.
21, the Fed said officials discussed several approaches to aiding the economy
but focused on buying additional longer-term Treasury securities and ways to
nudge the public into expecting higher levels of inflation in the future.
On Wall Street, stocks trimmed their losses, with both the
Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index briefly
turning higher after the FOMC's minutes came out.
To help shift inflation expectations, policy-makers debated
providing more detailed information about what rates of inflation they would
prefer, or the possibility of making clear they would tolerate a higher level
of inflation on a temporary basis, a policy approach known as price-level
targeting.
They also discussed the possibility of targeting a path for
GDP growth.
The Fed has kept overnight interest rates near zero since
December 2008 and has bought about $1.7 trillion in mortgage-linked securities
and longer-term government debt to lower other borrowing costs to help the
economy recover from the worst recession since the 1930s.
As the recovery showed signs of fading over the summer,
sapped by the drying up of government stimulus measures and the shock of a
sovereign debt crisis in Europe, Fed officials said they would consider
additional stimulus measures to support the sluggish economy.
The September meeting's minutes showed a number of Fed
officials were close to pulling the trigger.
"Many members considered the recent and anticipated
progress toward meeting the committee's mandate of maximum employment and price
stability to be unsatisfactory," the Fed said.
Several officials felt that unless conditions improved, they
would consider it appropriate to take action soon in hopes of spurring a
stronger recovery.
