Federal Reserve policymakers are on the verge of taking their first from an interest-rate hiking campaign that began 15 months ago, even as they confront a resilient U.S. economy and persistent inflation.
The Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday is expected to maintain its benchmark lending rate at the 5%-5.25% range, marking the first pause after 10 consecutive increases starting in March of last year.
And while the Fed’s efforts have helped to reduce price pressures in the U.S. economy, inflation has remained high.
Investors’ will be looking at the Fed’s quarterly dot plot in its Summary of Economic Projections, which is expected to show the policy benchmark rate at about 5.1% by the end of 2023.
By Steve Matthews, Vince Golle and Craig Stirling/Bloomberg
