PANews August 22 news, Wednesday's Federal Reserve meeting minutes show that at the July 30-31 meeting, "the vast majority of participants" believed that if data continued to be close to expectations, it might be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting. They also pointed out that "many" Fed officials believe that the stance of interest rates is restrictive, and "some participants" believe that with inflationary pressures continuing to cool, unchanged interest rates will mean that monetary policy will increase the drag on economic activity. The minutes also showed that although all Fed officials agreed to keep interest rates stable in July, "several" policymakers said that the progress made in rising unemployment and lowering inflation "provided a reasonable reason to lower the target range by 25 basis points at this meeting, or that they might have voted in favor of a rate cut." The vast majority said that if economic data continued to meet expectations, it might be appropriate to cut interest rates at the next meeting. Regarding the inflation outlook, participants judged that recent data strengthened their confidence that inflation continued to move toward 2%. Almost all participants believed that the factors that led to the recent slowdown in inflation may continue to put downward pressure on inflation in the coming months.