WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal Reserve officials, worried about weak growth overseas, agreed last month that they would begin raising interest rates only when measures of the economy's health and inflation signaled the time was right.
Minutes of the Fed's discussions at the Sept. 16-17 meeting released Wednesday showed that officials expressed rising worries about lackluster growth in Europe, as well as slowing growth in Japan and China.
Stocks surged after the release of the minutes. Investors appeared to take the revealed discussion as a sign that the Fed was in no hurry to raise interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 270 points in afternoon trading.
"The markets like the news that there is no urgency on the part of Fed officials to stop doing what they are doing," said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank in New York.
Fed officials also discussed the potential adverse impacts of a stronger dollar, which has gained strength recently against the euro, yen and British pound. A stronger dollar makes U.S. goods more expensive overseas and foreign goods cheaper in the United States, a development that can dampen inflation.
"Some participants expressed concern that the persistent shortfall of economic growth and inflation in the euro area could lead to a further appreciation of the U.S. dollar and have adverse effects on the U.S. external sector," the minutes said.
At the September meeting, the Fed voted 8-2 to keep its key short-term interest rate at a record low near zero and retained language that it expected the rate to remain at that level for a "considerable time" after it ends monthly bond purchases.