Federal Reserve’s meeting
The Federal Reserve is set to deliver its rate statement at 21:00 MT time.
At the last meeting, the Fed’s officials agreed to raise the benchmark interest rate for the third time in 6 months and left the door open for additional hikes by the end of 2017 despite growing concerns about weak inflation.
We don’t expect the Fed policymakers to introduce a rate increase at the upcoming meeting. We would rather wait for the details on the reduction of the Fed’s $4.5 trillion balance sheet, which is planned sometime this year. A lot will depend on the central bank’s assessment of the US current economic fundamentals. If the Fed’s officials admit that the economy evolves in accordance with their expectations, the unwinding of their balance sheet will be put into effect.