St. Louis Fed wanted cut to discount rate in June: minutes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ahead of the U.S. central bank's last policy meeting, directors at all but one of the Federal Reserve's 12 regional banks supported no change to the emergency lending rate for commercial banks, records from the discussions showed on Tuesday.

Only the directors at the St. Louis Fed recommended a quarter-of-a-percentage-point cut to the so-called discount rate, citing "current and anticipated economic conditions," according to a summary of discussions at the regional Fed banks ahead of the Fed's June 18-19 policy meeting.

Directors at the 11 other banks backed keeping the rate at 3%. They judged it would be appropriate for policymakers "to closely monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook and act as appropriate to sustain the expansion," the minutes said.

That was a shift from language used in minutes of prior meetings, which characterized directors as supporting a "patient" approach to setting monetary policy.

The language describing the views expressed at the discount rate-setting meetings closely mirrors that used in the Fed's statement issued following its June decision to keep rates steady.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard was the lone dissenting vote on that decision.

Policymakers will meet again in two weeks, and are widely expected to cut rates to boost growth and counter low inflation.

(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

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