Minutes showed Fed members debated pace of coming rate hikes in October

Federal Reserve officials debated what the pace of coming rate hikes, according to minutes from the 28-29 October meeting released on Wednesday.

The notes seem to confirm the central bank still believes it is on track to hike rates next year despite low inflation and a stagnant global economic outlook.

On 29 October, by nine votes to one, the Fed voted to end its asset purchase program and repeated that rates are likely to stay near zero for "a considerable time".

The minutes show that while "most" supported keeping the language about the longer-run federal funds rate, a couple of Fed officials wanted it to be changed.

Analysts, however, believe the Fed will go ahead and raise interest rates sooner than expected.

"There is nothing here to suggest that the market volatility persuaded officials to push back their expectations of when the first rate hike would be required next year," said Paul Ashwort, chief US economist at Capital Economics.

"Furthermore, we suspect that the data released since that meeting, which has included signs of further improvement in the labour market and evidence from the ECI of a pick-up in wage growth, will prompt a more significant revisions of those expectations at the upcoming December meeting.

"We still expect the Fed to begin raising rates next March, sooner than is widely appreciated."