March FOMC minutes: Higher federal funds rate expected by the end of this year
March FOMC minutes: Higher federal funds rate expected by the end of this year
Global & Regional Focus Notes
09 Απριλίου 2015
The minutes of the March 17-18 FOMC meeting did not yield major surprises. There was a considerable disparity of views between FOMC members around the timing of the first rate hike. A number of them argued in favor of a rate hike in June, but the majority appeared to be considering the first fed funds rate hike to be delivered in the second half of the year. Given the weaker than expected March nonfarm payrolls report and the Fed’s downwardly revised projection of the longer run rate of unemployment, our baseline scenario is for the Central Bank to start its monetary normalization process in September, at the earliest.