The US Federal Reserve yesterday left interest rates unchanged but strongly signalled it could still tighten monetary policy by the end of this year as the labour market improved further.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen, speaking after the central bank’s latest policy statement, said US growth was looking stronger and rate increases would be needed to keep the economy from overheating and fuelling high inflation.
“We judged that the case for an increase has strengthened but decided for the time being to wait,” Yellen told a news conference. “The economy has a little more room to run.”
Yellen said she expected one rate increase this year if the job market continued to improve and major new risks did not arise.
The Fed kept its target rate for overnight lending between banks in a range of 0.25 % to 0.50 %, where it has been since it hiked rates in December for the first time in nearly a decade.
The central bank has appeared increasingly divided over the urgency of raising rates. Yesterday, Kansas City Fed president Esther George, Cleveland Fed president Loretta Mester and Boston Fed president Eric Rosengren dissented on the policy statement, saying they favoured raising rates this week.
At the same time, policymakers cut the number of rate increases they expect this year to one from two previously, according to the median projection of forecasts released with the statement. Three of the 17 policymakers said rates should remain steady for the rest of the year.
The Fed also projected a less aggressive rise in interest rates next year and in 2018, and cut its longer-run interest rate forecast to 2.9 % from 3.0 %.
Investors did not appear to significantly shift their bets on the timing of the next rate hike. Prices for fed funds futures contracts suggested investors continued to see just better-than-even odds of a hike at the December policy meeting. HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani arrived in Los Angeles yesterday on a working visit. HH the Emir and the accompanying delegation were welcomed upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport by Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, US ambassador to Qatar Dana Smith, Qatar’s consul general in Los Angeles Khalid bin Yousif al-Sada and the Qatari consulate staff.
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