--FOMC: Some members said "upside risks" cannot be dismissed
--FOMC saw "appreciable recovery" in business as year progresses
--FOMC: Potential risk of dollar falling from current account gap
--FOMC MINUTES: Members saw inflation remaining steady
--FOMC saw longer-term household incoming remaining "positive"
--Some FOMC members see fiscal expansion leading to stronger US econ
--FOMC: Policy changes may need to be made "more aggressively"
By Shihoko Goto and Edward Kean Washington, March 22 (BridgeNews) - Following their decision on Jan. 3 to slash interest rates ahead of a scheduled policy meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously Jan. 31 to cut rates still further by another 50 basis points, according to a written summary of that meeting released Thursday. But some members pointed out that the upside risks to the U.S. economy "could not be totally dismissed." * * * FOMC members said that while the slowdown in the latter half of last year was "not expected in light of the previously unsustainable rate of increase in output, the speed and extent of the slowdown were much more pronounced than they had anticipated." Still, some said that upside risks remained, particularly with the "persistence of rapid advances in productivity." Members were uncertain as to how long the slowdown would continue, but they "saw favorable prospects for an appreciable recovery in overall business activity as the year progressed.