Fed officials debate timing of interest rate increases

WASHINGTON: A debate is intensifying among the Federal Reserve’s regional bank presidents about whether to push interest rates up from zero sooner than planned because of recent improvements in the US job market, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Most Fed officials at June’s policy meeting didn’t see rate increases until 2015, according to projections made before the Labor Department reported on July 3 that the jobless rate fell to 6.1% in June, the Journal said in an article posted late on Friday.