Apparently, some members of the FOMC may be advocating for a more hawkish approach to US monetary policy. The FOMC, or Federal Open Markets Committee, is a committee of the US Federal Reserve and its members vote on the stance of US monetary policy.
The Fed made its first rate increase of this cycle in December 2015. It then paused for one full year before it raised the rate another three times from late in 2016 to mid-2017. The federal funds target rate was then increased by 25bps on another four occasions in December 2017, March 2018, June 2018 and September 2018.
At the moment, the US Fed appears to be on a schedule to deliver 25bps interest rate increases every three months. The FOMC has been at pains to state repeatedly over time how US monetary policy would be normalised “at a gradual pace” and so a rate rise every three months would seem to qualify as “gradual” as per the Fed’s definition.