(RTTNews) - The Federal Reserve released the minutes of its December monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, reinforcing expectations the central bank is likely to continuing raising interest rates. "Participants generally observed that a restrictive policy stance would need to be maintained until the incoming data provided confidence that inflation was on a sustained downward path to 2 percent, which was likely to take some time," the Fed said. The central bank added, "In view of the persistent and unacceptably high level of inflation, several participants commented that historical experience cautioned against prematurely loosening monetary policy."