US Federal Reserve officials raised concerns in December that the fight against inflation may have “stalled” in recent months, and weighed the likely impact of Trump’s trade policies, according to minutes of the meeting published Wednesday.The central bank voted 11-to-1 last month in favor of cutting interest rates by a quarter point and signaled a slower pace of cuts ahead, raising concerns that interest rates may have to remain higher for longer. The decision was taken against the backdrop of a small uptick in inflation over the last few months of the year, moving the Fed’s favored inflation gauge away from its long-term target of two percent.At the same time, growth has remained robust and the labor market relatively resilient, reducing the pressure on the Fed to cut rates swiftly. The Fed’s decision to cut rates to between 4.25 and 4.50 percent was not unanimous — an unusual occurrence — with Cleveland Fed president Beth Hammack voting to leave rates unchanged.During the meeting, “several” members of the Fed’s rate-setting committee raised concerns that the “disinflationary process may have stalled temporarily or noted the risk that it could,” the Fed said in minutes of the meeting published on Wednesday.”Almost all participants judged that upside risks to the inflation outlook had increased,” it added.  Fed officials were also concerned about how to model the likely impact of changes to trade and immigration policy pledged by Donald Trump on the inflation fight — although they did not refer to the Republican president-elect by name. Trump’s team has pledged to impose sweeping tariffs on goods entering the United States and to deport millions of undocumented workers, leading many economists to predict inflation could be higher than previously predicted, and growth lower. Trump and his economic advisors have challenged those assumptions, insisting that his policies will be both disinflationary and pro-growth.”Recent higher-than-expected readings on inflation, and the effects of potential changes in trade and immigration policy, suggested that the process could take longer than previously anticipated,” the Fed said. Some officials chose to factor assumptions about trade and immigration into their economic forecasts, while others chose not to do so, and some refused to say whether or not they did. A few participants also said it “might be difficult to distinguish more persistent influences on inflation from potentially temporary ones, such as those stemming from changes in trade policy.”Futures traders see a roughly 95 percent chance that the Fed will keep its key lending rate unchanged at the next rate decision later this month, according to data from CME Group.

Several senior US Federal Reserve officials raised concerns in December that the fight against inflation may have “stalled” in recent months, according to minutes of the meeting published Wednesday.The central bank voted 11-to-1 last month in favor of cutting interest rates by a quarter point and signaled a slower pace of cuts ahead, raising concerns that interest rates would have to remain higher for longer. The decision was taken against the backdrop of a small uptick in inflation over the last few months of the year, moving the Fed’s favored inflation gauge away from its long-term target of two percent.At the same time, growth has remained robust and the labor market relatively resilient, reducing the pressure on the Fed to cut rates swiftly. The Fed’s decision to cut rates to between 4.25 and 4.50 percent was not unanimous — an unusual occurrence — with Cleveland Fed president Beth Hammack voting to leave rates unchanged.During the meeting, “several” members of the Fed’s rate-setting committee raised concerns that the “disinflationary process may have stalled temporarily or noted the risk that it could,” the Fed said in minutes of the meeting published on Wednesday.”Almost all participants judged that upside risks to the inflation outlook had increased,” it added.  Fed officials were also concerned about how to model the likely impact of changes to trade and immigration policy pledged by Donald Trump, although they did not refer to the president-elect by name. Some chose to factor some assumptions into their economic forecasts, while others chose not to do so, and some refused to say whether or not they had. Trump has pledged to impose sweeping tariffs on goods entering the United States, and to implement a policy of mass deportation of undocumented workers, leading many economists to predict inflation could be higher than previously predicted, and growth lower. Trump and his economic advisors have challenged those assumptions, insisting that his policies will be disinflationary and pro-growth.During their rate discussions, a few participants said it “might be difficult to distinguish more persistent influences on inflation from potentially temporary ones, such as those stemming from changes in trade policy that could lead to shifts in the level of prices.”Before the minutes were published, futures traders assigned a probability of around 95 percent that the Fed would keep its key lending rate unchanged at its next rate decision later this month, according to CME Group.

Mexico’s president took a swipe at Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying that the United States should be called “Mexican America,” after Trump’s vow to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”At her regular morning press conference, Claudia Sheinbaum displayed a 17th-century world map showing North America as “Mexican America.”Pointing out that the Gulf of Mexico was the name recognized by the United Nations, she turned the tables on Trump, saying: “Why don’t we call it (the United States) Mexican America?””It sounds nice, doesn’t it?””He talked about name, we too are talking about the name,” she said, while assuring that she expected to have “good relations” with the incoming US president.Trump, who will be sworn in for a second term on January 20, said Tuesday he planned to rename the Gulf of Mexico “the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring.””It’s appropriate. And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country,” he said.He also claimed that Mexico was run by drug cartels, to which Sheinbaum responded that “in Mexico, the people rule.”In the run-up to his return to office, Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Mexico, threatening to impose stiff tariffs on imports from one of the United States’ biggest trading partners unless it halted the flow of illegal migrants and drugs across the border.He has also revived a threat from his first term to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist groups.

People living all over Los Angeles were urged Wednesday to conserve water after hydrants ran dry as major wildfires erupted around the city.Firefighters battling out-of-control blazes struggled with supplies in the ritzy Pacific Palisades area of the city, utility managers said, blaming an unprecedented challenge to the city’s reserves.Massive tanks supplying water to the area ran dry overnight as dozens of hoses were attached in an almost fruitless effort to save homes in a blaze that has leveled around 1,000 buildings.”We have three large water tanks, about a million gallons each,” Los Angeles Department of Water and Power chief executive Janisse Quinones told reporters.”We ran out of water in the first tank about 4:45pm yesterday, we ran out of water on the second tank about 8:30pm and the third tank about 3am this morning.”That’s where the hydrants went dry.”Quinones said more water was being pumped to the area to help keep the hydrants flowing, but the size of the supply lines and the fact that water had to be pumped uphill was complicating matters.”I need our customers to really conserve water, not just in the Palisades area, but the whole system, because the fire department needs the water to fight the fires,” Quinones said.”We’re fighting a wildfire with urban water systems, and that is really challenging.”Quinones said residents in certain areas should boil their tap water because of low supplies and pollution.”Because we’re pushing the water system so hard, our water quality is decreasing. So we’re going to be issuing a boil water notice this morning, and that will extend for about 48 hours,” she said.”The water quality is low. We have a lot of ash in the system, and so please, if you’re going to be drinking water, you need to boil the water.”Four major fires were burning around Los Angeles. Two people are known to have died, with a large number of people badly hurt, officials said.Tens of thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate their homes, and firefighters are stretched extremely thin fighting blazes that remain entirely uncontrolled.