Dear clients,
The US Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates for the first time in more than a year at its June 13-14 meeting, according to economists polled by Reuters, but a significant minority expect at least one more rate hike this year as the economy remains resilient.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell signalled in May that the US central bank may soon pause its rate hike cycle to assess the impact of a historically aggressive 500 basis point tightening, raising rates at every meeting since March 2022.
More than 90% of economists, 78 out of 86 surveyed from 2-7 June, believe the Federal Open Market Committee will hold the federal funds rate at 5.00%-5.25% at the end of next week’s meeting. The remaining eight expect a 25 basis point rate hike.
Since the last Fed meeting in May, strong economic data and comments from several Fed officials have prompted markets to assume a rate hike at or before the July 25-26 meeting, with previous expectations of a rate cut later this year quickly easing.
This hawkish change in market expectations has helped lift the US dollar to its highest level since March.
The problem is that inflation is not falling fast enough — in April it was 4.4% on the Fed’s preferred target and 4.7% excluding volatile food and energy prices. The central bank’s inflation target is 2%.
More than a third of survey participants, 32 of 86, believe the Fed will raise rates at least once more this year, including eight who say it will happen in June and 24 who expect a rate hike in July after a pause. Only one predicts a rate hike in both June and July.
Just over 25% of economists, 23 out of 86, predict at least one Fed rate cut before the end of 2023, but this is down from 28% in the previous survey. Markets estimate the probability of a rate cut this year at around 60%.
Less than 60% of respondents to an additional question, 28 of 48, said the world’s biggest economy will fall into recession this year, down from more than 70% in a survey conducted just a few weeks ago.
