Economists from Global Insight say the FOMC minutes "will bring more light to bear on the Fed's rapidly evolving policy position." They also said the FOMC statement indicated a neutral policy bias, but that "recent speeches from Fed officials indicate that the bias since has moved towards an easing."

Ellen Zentner, senior macroeconomist at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, said not too many people will be paying attention to the release, for several reasons. First, too much has happened in the previous four weeks: the minutes will say the economy is on shaky ground, which will offer little insight given that the Fed bailed out AIG hours after the statement.

Secondly, the vote was unanimous. Often, analysts will read the minutes to understand why dissenting votes were cast and whether they had much influence, but the last meeting was the first unanimous call since September 2007. Moreover, the most hawkish member on the FOMC, Richard Fisher, delivered a speech on Monday.

Third, the Chicago Fed announced it marked down its forecast on Monday, and Zentner said similar revisions from other district banks will probably be announced soon, thereby making previous forecasts out of date.

Tyson Wright, senior FX trader at Custom House, said the minutes are unlikely to have much impact. "The market is looking forward and not backwards. Markets have changed so much in the past week that what was written in the minutes may not be indicative of what's going to happen [at the October meeting]," he said.

At the Sept. 16 meeting, the 10 members released a statement with a neutral bias, emphasizing concern on both of the central bank's mandates.

"The downside risks to growth and the upside risks to inflation are both of significant concern to the Committee. The Committee will monitor economic and financial developments carefully and will act as needed to promote sustainable economic growth and price stability," the statement read.

In the growth paragraph, the FOMC said "economic growth appears to have slowed recently." Labour markets weakened further and "[t]ight credit conditions, the ongoing housing contraction, and some slowing in export growth are likely to weigh on economic growth over the next few quarters," the statement said.

On inflation, the Committee said it "expects inflation to moderate later this year and next year, but the inflation outlook remains highly uncertain."

In the latest press release on Monday, the Fed announced it would begin to pay interest on bank deposits, which should encourage banks to leave more dollars at the central bank. In turn, that should give the Fed more liquidity to lend to troubled banks, without actually increasing the supply of total credit available. The plan was supposed to begin in October 2011, but the turmoil sped up the implementation process.

By Patrick McGee, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , edited by Nancy Girgis, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

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