Comparison of the April 2016 FOMC Minutes to the October 2015 Minutes The last time the FOMC hiked rates was in December. Before the announcement, one of the big signals they sent came in the Minutes of the final FOMC meeting beforehand. That took place on October 27-28 and the Minutes were released in November. Here is exactly what those Minutes said. "Some participants thought that the conditions for beginning the policy normalization process had already been met. Most participants anticipated that, based on their assessment of the current economic situation and their outlook for economic activity, the labor ... (full story)