(Aug 15): Two Federal Reserve officials on Thursday lined up behind the possibility of an interest rate cut at the US central bank's policy meeting next month, reversing their previous scepticism about lowering borrowing costs too soon.

"It now appears the balance of risks on inflation and unemployment has shifted ... the time may be nearing when an adjustment to moderately restrictive policy may be appropriate," St Louis Fed president Alberto Musalem said during an event in Louisville, Kentucky.

Musalem had previously signalled a more cautious approach to cutting rates than many of his colleagues.

Financial markets broadly expect the Fed to cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point at its September 17-18 meeting, which would mark its first such move in this policy cycle. The central bank began raising its benchmark overnight lending rate in March 2022, pushing it from the near-zero level to the current 5.25%-5.50% range. It has remained at that level since July 2023.

Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic, in an interview published in the Financial Times, also said he is open to a rate cut at the September meeting, a change from his previous expectation for this year of a single quarter-percentage-point reduction in borrowing costs in the fourth quarter.

"Now that inflation is coming into range, we have to look at the other side of the mandate, and there, we've seen the unemployment rate rise considerably off of its lows," Bostic said. "But it does have me thinking about what the appropriate timing is, and so I'm open to something happening in terms of us moving before the fourth quarter."

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