Federal Reserve officials saw "little evidence" late last month that U.S. inflation pressures were easing, and steeled themselves to force the economy to slow down as much as needed to control the surge in prices.

While not explicitly hinting at a particular pace of coming rate increases, beginning with the Sept. 20-21 meeting, the minutes released on Wednesday showed policymakers committed to raising rates as high as necessary to bring inflation under control, and acknowledging that they would have to engineer less spending and lower overall growth for that to happen.

As of the July meeting, Fed officials noted that while some parts of the economy, notably housing, had begun to slow under the weight of tighter credit conditions, the labor market remained strong and unemployment was at a near-record low.

"Participants [of the FOMC meeting] emphasized that a slowing in aggregate demand would play an important role in reducing inflation pressures," the minutes said.

The pace of future hikes would depend, the minutes said, on incoming economic data, as well as Fed assessments of how the economy was adapting to the higher rates already approved.