That would be above the 5.1% level that the Fed’s policymakers had penciled in at their meeting in December. “We have not made any decision about the March meeting.”Įconomists at Goldman Sachs said Tuesday they now expect the central bank to raise its benchmark short-term rate to roughly 5.6%, up from its current 4.6%.
“We’re not on a preset path, and we will be guided by the incoming data,” Powell said. Patrick McHenry, the Republican chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Powell said the Fed would closely scrutinize data on hiring, retail sales and inflation that will be released next week before settling on its next interest rate moves. Powell’s comments Tuesday appeared to imply that the Fed would return to larger rates hikes at its next meeting March 21-22.īut under questioning Wednesday from Rep. Powell’s more nuanced remarks Wednesday appeared to be an effort to quell any assumption that the Fed has already decided to raise rates more aggressively based on a recent string of data that pointed to strong economic growth and still-high inflation.Īt its meeting in early February, the Fed slowed its pace of hikes, boosting its key rate by just a quarter-point, after a half-point increase in December and three-quarters of a point four times before that.
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