Tag Archives: Fed monetary policy

Alongside clear signals that policy rates will continue to rise in the near term were some dovish hints about policy further down the road.Chairman Jerome Powell’s congressional testimony on 17 July contained limited new information about the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy intentions. Conveying the impression that he maintained a steady hand on the tiller, Powell seemed unfazed by the recent escalation in trade. Instead, Powell remained positive about the global economy. He also...

Amid signs of robust consumer spending, we still expect two rate hikes from the Fed this year.Core retail sales in the US rose by a solid 0.4% m-o-m in January, above consensus expectations. Moreover, December’s figure was revised up. The result was that between Q4 and January, core retail sales grew by a robust 4.2% annualised. We forecast that consumer spending will grow by around 2.2% q-o-q annualised in Q1, after 2.5% in Q4 2016.All in all, we remain optimistic about consumer spending...