Federal Reserve officials stressed the need to keep their options open on future rate hikes, minutes from the central bank's May policy meeting indicated Wednesday, but hinted that if the economy performs as expected, further increases might not be necessary.

The minutes, taken from the Fed's policy meeting that ended on May 3, reflect the broad strokes of the central bank's statement, as well as comments from Chairman Jerome Powell, that followed its tenth consecutive rate hike. That increase lifted the Fed Funds benchmark to a range of 5% to 5.25%, the highest since 2007.

Powell noted at the time that a change in the Fed's statement language, which stated a preference for “determining” whether additional rate hikes will be needed as opposed to its previous communications that said “some additional policy firming may be appropriate”, thanks in part to the ongoing easing of consumer price pressures.

Data from the Commerce Department earlier this month showed inflation falling below the 5% mark for the first time in two years, with CPI pegged at an annualized rate of 4.9%. The core inflation, which, as we know, strips-out volatile components such as food and energy prices, rose 0.4% on the month and 5.5% on the year, with both readings matching Wall Street forecasts.