Global & Regional Focus Notes
14 December 2017
Paraskevi Petropoulou, Senior Economist of Eurobank
The FOMC fulfils market expectations and delivers the third rate hike this year. In line with market expectations, the FOMC delivered at 25bps rate hike at this week’s two-day monetary policy meeting, the 3rd hike this year, taking the fed funds rate to 1.25-1.50%. Two FOMC members, Charles Evans (Chicago Fed President) and Neel Kashkari (Minneapolis Fed President) dissented, voting in favor of unchanged interest rates due to the lack of progress on inflation. These two members are among the four Reserve Bank Presidents in the 12-seat FOMC who will lose their voting rights next year (Reserve Bank Presidents serve one-year terms on a rotating basis).
