It would boost the nation’s key interest rate to its highest level in 16 years, making future rate decisions more difficult and treacherous.
The wide range of potential outcomes could provoke divisions among Fed officials, even as they’re expected on Wednesday to raise their benchmark rate to 5.1%, the highest level in 16 years. The big question is whether the Fed will also signal Wednesday that it’s now inclined to pause its rate increases — barring any re-acceleration of inflation — and keep its key rate unchanged for the rest of 2023 as it assesses its progress in cooling inflation.
“I think we need to be cautious,” Goolsbee said. “We should gather further data and be careful about raising rates too aggressively.” That divergence reflects the fraught path confronting the Fed. When inflation was spiking to a peak of 9.1% last June, the Fed was mostly united in its support for fast and aggressive rate increases. Now that its key rate is at a level that should restrict growth and inflation has slowed to 5% as of March, unanimity could be harder to maintain.The Fed is meeting this week against an increasingly cloudy economic backdrop.
Goldman Sachs estimates that a widespread pullback in bank lending could cut U.S. growth by 0.4 percentage point this year. That could be enough to cause a recession. In December, the Fed projected growth of just 0.5% in 2023.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Federal Reserve expected to raise key interest rate for 10th time amid banking turmoilSuch anxieties would argue against further rate hikes, at least for now.
Read more »
Federal Reserve expected to raise key interest rate for 10th time amid banking turmoilSuch anxieties would argue against further rate hikes, at least for now.
Read more »
Federal Reserve expected to raise key interest rate for 10th time amid banking turmoilSuch anxieties would argue against further rate hikes, at least for now.
Read more »
Here's what to expect from today's Federal Reserve announcementWhere the intrigue comes in is how the central bank proceeds from here.
Read more »
Federal Reserve confronts 'contradictory' economy today as it considers next interest rate hikeAs the Federal Reserve gets ready to make its latest about whether it will raise its key federal funds rate for the 10th consecutive time, finance commentators continue to disagree about how it should respond to economic conditions.
Read more »
Federal Reserve's employee stock trading rules not strict enough: Agency watchdogThe federalreserve does not have enough restrictions on how employees trade in the stock market despite the agency having some of the most rigid staff rules, according to a government watchdog.
Read more »