By Jason Lange
WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve debatedcutting interest rates more aggressively at its last meeting,although central bankers were united in wanting to avoid theappearance of being on a path to more rate cuts, records fromthe meeting showed.
The U.S. central bank cut rates by 25 basis points at theclose of its July 30-31 meeting, with minutes for the meetingpublished on Wednesday showing broad concern among policymakersover a global economic slowdown, trade tensions and sluggishinflation.
"A couple of participants indicated that they would havepreferred a 50 basis point cut," according to the minutes,saying the policymakers favoring such a move were concerned byinflation being too low.
At the same time, the policymakers agreed they did not wantto give the impression they were planning more rate cuts.
"Participants generally favored an approach in which policywould be guided by incoming information ... and that avoided anyappearance of following a preset course," according to theminutes.
The meeting also included discussion of the Fed's researchinto potential changes to its approach to setting policy. Anumber of policymakers said the Fed could have been moreaggressive in using bond purchases to fight the 2007-09recession.
However, policymakers also said tools like bond purchasesand pledges about future policy might not be enough to eliminatethe risk of policy being hampered in the future when the Fed'sbenchmark rate gets close to zero.(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Andrea Ricci)