Federal Reserve rate decisions will be made on meeting-by-meeting basis

Investors currently expect the Fed to begin raising rates in March with an initial increase of half a percentage point, and to continue raising rates through the year

Federal Reserve officials last month agreed that, with inflation widening its grip on the economy and employment strong, it was time to tighten monetary policy, but also that decisions would depend on a meeting-by-meeting analysis of data, according to minutes of the Jan. 25-26 policy meeting.

Participants agreed that the U.S. central bank's target interest rate would likely have to rise at a "faster pace" than it did when the Fed last lifted interest rates in 2015, said the minutes, which were released on Wednesday.

But "even so, participants emphasized that the appropriate path of policy would depend on economic