Schwab on Fed, Pace of Hikes
Brokerage Charles Schwab wrote recently, "Fed Raises Rates, Projects Faster Pace of Future Hikes," which says, "The Federal Reserve raised its target range for the federal funds rate, as expected, [last] Wednesday. The range is now 1.75% to 2.0%. Projections suggest two more rate hikes this year, signaling a faster pace of tightening than the March projections indicated. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell indicated that there will be press conferences after every FOMC meeting, beginning next January. Overall, the outcome of the meeting was largely in line with expectations, but it signaled that the Fed is focusing on tightening policy further in response to low unemployment." The piece explains, "The important shift by the Fed was seen in its new dot plot, which provides insight into the Fed's thinking about the pace of rate hikes. The Fed is projecting that it will raise interest rates the same number of times, but more quickly. Based on the dot plot, the committee's median estimates for the pace of rate hikes suggest that there could be a total of four rate hikes this year, up from three implied in the previous estimate. Additionally, the projections imply three rate hikes in 2019 and then one more hike in 2020. However, the long-run federal funds rate is still projected to be near 3%. This projection is viewed as the Fed's estimate of the 'neutral rate,' the rate that neither slows nor accelerates inflation."
