Fed Officials May Slow Tightening If World Growth Disappoints

Federal Reserve officials sounded an alert over the threat to U.S. growth from a slowdown elsewhere in the world, warning it could make them delay an interest-rate increase.

“If foreign growth is weaker than anticipated, the consequences for the U.S. economy could lead the Fed to remove accommodation more slowly than otherwise,” Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said yesterday in a speech at the International Monetary Fund’s annual meetings in Washington.