Federal Reserve officials signaled at their most recent meeting that additional interest rate hikes are necessary this year to bring inflation down to their 2% target, although many supported a slower pace of increases. 

Minutes from the U.S. central bank's Jan. 31-Feb. 1 meeting were released on Wednesday. Although inflation has shown early signs of cooling off, it remains stubbornly high. 

"Participants observed that a restrictive policy stance would need to be maintained until the incoming data provided confidence that inflation was on a sustained downward path to 2%, which was likely to take some time," the meeting minutes said.

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