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.
I’m a central banker, get me out of here Ant and Dec were not present at the RBA decision overnight. However, based upon the reception of the decision, Governor Michele Bullock might rightly feel she was in one of the duo’s trials. Markets offered a frosty reception to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest interest […]
UK With 2 year mortgage rates less than 4% and 5 years at 4.39%, the implication for the housing market which has responded by a modest 0.2% rise, is that rates are soon going to fall and that the UK economy is stabilising. While there will doubtless be setbacks to this rose tinted scenario, for […]
Data Day Despite salient data already having been published in China and France so far this morning, we are far from finished with the deluge of data due to reach the market today. The most important of which will be those that we have signposted in earlier briefings: Eurozone and US inflation figures. Given just […]