-
The Fed: More Confident on Outlook and Inflation Target
Going into Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s 32nd and final meeting, neither we nor the markets expected the Fed to make much news. Of note, however, in its statement after the meeting on 31 January, the Fed acknowledged recent firmer economic data and expressed confidence in inflation moving toward the 2% target later this year. The macro data released since the Fed’s December rate hike has been broadly in line with the Fed’s outlook, and officials should be pleased that market pricing for policy rate normalization in 2018 is converging to the Fed’s own December “dot plot” median of three rate hikes ... (full story)