Tag Archives: Federal Reserve

An influential monetary policymaker said this week that it would be appropriate for the Federal Reserve to raise the federal funds target rate later this year despite declining to do so in the September meeting of the Federal Open Market ...

"In determining how long to maintain this target range, the Committee will assess progress—both realized and expected—toward its objectives of maximum employment and 2 percent inflation," the Fed said in a statement.

According to the CME Group's FedWatch Tool, which measures the market's expectations of Fed target rates on a daily basis, there is a 74.7 percent chance of the Fed raising rates by 0.25 percent this week. On the other hand, the FedWatch data found that there is a 25.3 percent chance of the Fed raising rates by 0.50 percent.

Kaushik Basu, Chief Economist for World Bank, said on Wednesday that the U.S. central bank should delay a rate hike until the global economy stabilizes. Basu said it would have negative consequences if the Fed raises rates now due to economic uncertainty in China and the effect it has on global markets.

Job gains fell below expectations for the month of August, totaling less than 200,000, but wage growth finally began to show some upward pressure—but analysts are still divided on whether it will be enough to convince the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in their September meeting.

Robust demand and declining inventory were the driving factors behind the increase in home prices, according to contacts in most Fed districts. Inventories in nearly all districts declined or stayed flat, except for Kansas City, where they slightly increased

Last week, data from the Federal Reserve indicated that foreign central banks had reduced holdings of agency debt and MBS at the Fed to their lowest level since early May ($285.21 billion),

At a press conference following a speech on the regional economic outlook in Buffalo on Wednesday morning, New York Fed president and CEO William C. Dudley expressed the idea that a rate hike at September's Federal Open Market Committee meeting seemed "less compelling" than it was a few weeks ago following the turbulent stock market activity earlier in the week.

Included in the inaugural edition of Economy Matters post is a piece examining how Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart prepares for the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) and his experience with the Committee, which is scheduled to meet again in September.

For many, the Dow Jones' steep decline on Monday removed any doubt as to whether the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates, which have been at or near zero for seven years. Prior to Monday, many pundits predicted that the country's economy had experienced the growth needed for the Fed to raise the rates; now, they're not so sure.