The Federal Reserve (FED) of the United States of America will begin its Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington this Tuesday to decide whether to increase its reference interest rate in a new attempt to reduce inflation. That took the indicator from a range of 0 to 0.25% a year ago to 4.75% to 5% today.
The entire environment around Wall Street denies that the agency will again adjust the rate by 25 basis points to bring the indicator to the range of 5 to 5.25% for the coming months. And they anticipate it will remain at that level through the end of the year.
Investors’ attention is focused on the outlook the Fed will outline for the coming months and indications that the organization’s Chairman Jerome Powell may present during Wednesday’s press conference.
so say economists Powell will likely signal that the Fed is nearing a long-awaited pause in its rate hikes. However, it won’t necessarily send a clear signal that this week’s hike will be the Fed’s last. Instead, he would emphasize that if inflation remains consistently high, there could be more rate hikes if it stays above the 2% target rate.
Everything seems to indicate The Fed will continue to focus on reducing inflation and addressing the banking crisis Interest rate adjustments are not expected to ease as First Republic Bank collapsed over the weekend.
At the Fed’s last meeting in March, its officials predicted they would implement another hike and then leave rates unchanged until next year.
Those forecasts are released once a quarter, so they won’t be updated until June.
However, seven of the 18 Fed directors forecast rates higher than 5.1%, while only one forecast a lower rate.
The rate hike has led to higher costs for a range of debt, from mortgages and car purchases to credit cards and corporate loans, and raised recession risks.
There is a cloud of uncertainty and mixed signals over the central bank’s next moves after this week.
The economy appears to be cooling off, with consumer spending flattening in February and March, indicating that many buyers have become wary of higher prices and borrowing costs.
The job market looks resilient and has kept the unemployment rate near a 50-year low for months, although it is now showing some cracks.
Hiring has slowed, job opportunities have shrunk, and fewer people are leaving their jobs, usually for bbetter-payingpositions.
