As expected the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25bps to 1.25%. Furthermore, a new programme of balance sheet reduction will be underway by clearing a fixed amount of assets each month, though the start date is yet to be confirmed.
An update to the ‘dot plot’ graph shows the median expectation among policymakers of one more rate hike this year, possibly scheduled for September. Furthermore, this will be followed by a continued pattern of hikes in 2018 and 2019.
This is a result of new economic growth projections which indicate that the most powerful economy in the world is on the rebound following Q1 slowdown.
US Dollar strength has inevitably occurred in the morning trading session on the London market with Cable down 1 cent from Wednesday mornings open at 1.2725.
Too soon to call USD lower Those following the US Dollar’s performance in the markets would have noted a recent downturn accelerating as this week has progressed. There have been two factors driving this sell-off but it is far from certain that either may endure long enough to push the Dollar index back to its […]
Milan, Italy The City of Milan has a late night noise problem and so it has acted unilaterally to resolve it-Italian style. A ban on the sale of take away food including ice cream and pizza after midnight is being imposed to protect the “peace and health of residents.” Here in the UK late night […]
Coal tinted spectacles If you had to boil down the global economy into one category from the options of bad/fair/good, what would you choose? We all experience the economy vastly differently down to an infinite number of variables. But by and large the current phase we are in, characterised by strong global growth rates, record […]