Federal Reserve officials signaled little appetite for reducing interest rates at their meeting last month, with most indicating they wanted to see further progress on inflation before considering any more cuts—a process that could take months, according to the minutes of the meeting. Elsewhere, Indonesia’s central bank left rates unchanged for a fourth straight meeting on Thursday, a widely expected move as rupiah stability remained in focus. And the Philippine central bank cut rates at its first meeting of the year, a widely expected move as weak growth underlines the need for more economic support.

Even though two Federal Reserve officials opposed the decision to hold rates steady at their Jan. 27-28 meeting and favored a cut, minutes of the meeting showed that other officials would have supported more neutral language characterizing the prospect of a rate cut or a rate increase as evenly balanced.

The minutes said those officials would have been comfortable changing the Fed’s carefully drafted postmeeting statement to reflect the possibility that rate increases could be warranted if inflation continued to run above the Fed’s target.

Demographics, rising profits and soaring asset values have together wrought a quiet transformation in the American economy. Much of it is now in the hands of the elderly, writes Greg Ip for The Wall Street Journal. As of the third quarter of last year, people 70 and over controlled roughly 39% of all equities and mutual funds owned by households, compared with 22% in 2007, according to Federal Reserve data. Their share of net worth—assets minus debts—was 32%, up from 20% two decades earlier.

Debt held by the public will balloon to more than $56 trillion by 2036 as annual deficits continue to mount, according to the latest projections from the Congressional Budget Office. By later this year, the federal debt held by the public is expected to surpass the size of the entire U.S. economy. Here is a closer look at those numbers, in five charts.

If you wanted to get a home loan in recent years, there is a good chance you looked past a bank like JPMorgan Chase or Wells Fargo and went to a mortgage company like Rocket or Pennymac. These nonbank lenders now handle most U.S. home loans. But that could change as Washington aims to get banks back into the mortgage market.

8:30 a.m.: Advance Economic Indicators Report
8:30 a.m.: U.S. International Trade in Goods & Services
8:30 a.m.: Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook Survey
8:30 a.m.: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report - Initial Claims
10 a.m.: Pending Home Sales Index
5:15 p.m.: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly conversation with Goldman Sachs Vice Chairman and former Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Rob Kaplan

8:30 a.m.: Advance estimate GDP
9:45 a.m.: US Flash Manufacturing PMI
9:45 a.m.: US Flash Services PMI
9:45 a.m.: FRB Atlanta President Raphael Bostic participates in moderated discussion with Birmingham Business Journal editor-in-chief
10 a.m.: New Residential Sales
10 a.m.: Advance Quarterly Services
10 a.m.: University of Michigan Survey of Consumers - final
3:30 p.m.: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President Alberto Musalem appears on Fox Business
7 p.m.: ECB President Christine Lagarde delivers acceptance speech for the Wolfgang Friedmann Memorial Award

While a potential leadership change at the European Central Bank wouldn't dramatically alter the path of interest rates, disruption and uncertainty could inject an element of volatility to markets, Ebury's Matthew Ryan says. Speculation alone of Christine Lagarde's stepping down could conceivably erode her credibility and authority in coming communications, he says in a note. "We could see some modest downside in the euro should markets react unfavorably to the prospect of an early Lagarde exit and a step into the unknown." However, there seems little appetite among policymakers for any rate changes this year, so even an early change in leadership would unlikely have any bearing on ECB policy until at least 2027, he says. — Edward Frankl

• Higher U.S. tariffs are not the main reason for a surge in Chinese exports to the eurozone, Africa and other parts of Asia, according to economists at the European Central Bank.
• A senior Canadian official says he’s hoping to speak with the U.S. Trade Representative in the coming weeks about addressing the Trump administration’s complaints over Canadian trade policy.
• China’s economy has held up remarkably well against shocks like U.S. tariffs but continued resilience will need consumption to drive growth, rather than external demand, according to a report by the International Monetary Fund.

WSJ Pro Central Banking brings you central banking news, analysis and insights from WSJ’s global team of reporters and editors. This newsletter was compiled by markets reporter Vicky Ge Huang in New York. Send your tips, suggestions and feedback to vicky.huang@wsj.com.