The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to raise its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point again next month.

The Fed on Wednesday published the minutes from its Federal Open Market Committee(FOMC) meeting held from January 21 to February 1, at which the officials unanimously voted for the quarter-point increase.

Most of the officials agreed that slowing the pace of the Fed’s rate increases would better allow them to assess the economy's progress toward reducing inflation to their two-percent target, but a few participants favored a hike of 50 basis points.

The Wall Street Journal said that the Fed is likely to raise the key rate by a quarter of a percentage point again in its FOMC meeting set for March 21.

Meanwhile, some of the Fed officials also warned that a hasty end to its tightening policy, such as rate hikes, may worsen the economy, which has shown improvement recently.

The rate hike would further widen the gap between the Fed’s rate and that of the Bank of Korea, heightening concerns about capital outflow.