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US – Fed To Raise Rates Fairly Soon

• Posted by Shyam Gokani in Brexit, Currency, Dollar, EUR, GBP, Sterling, UK, Uncategorised
• February 23, 2017
• No Comments

Federal Reserve officials have said they may need to raise interest rates “fairly soon” if the economy stays strong, minutes of their meeting show.

The first meeting of the Fed since Donald Trump took office as president discussed the possibility of a rate rise as early as March.

Most economists have been forecasting a rise in June.

However, Fed officials appear divided on the timing of a rise amid uncertainty over Mr Trump’s policies.

“Several” expressed fears that unemployment could fall substantially below the Fed’s 4.8% target. That could trigger inflation pressures and force the Fed to boost rates at a faster pace than financial markets expect.

With no economic data that will impact the rates today Sterling has steadied against the Euro and Dollar.

Yesterday we see the pound gain over a percent as Le Pen closed the gap in the latest opinion poll in France regarding the Election in April. By Wednesday afternoon the currency pair retraced dipping into the 1.17 level again.

Brexit is happening, the public and markets know we are looking to trigger Article50 by the end of March. We do not really expect there to be much volatility when that happens as the markets have now priced this in.

No UK data of any significance now until Wednesday 1^st March any movement will be due to political news.