Fed Hints at December Rate Hike

The Federal Reserve could raise US interest rates “relatively soon” if economic data keeps pointing to an improving labor market and rising inflation, Fed chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday in a clear hint the central bank could hike next month.

Yellen said Fed policymakers at their meeting earlier in November judged that the case for a rate hike had strengthened.

“Such an increase could well become appropriate relatively soon,” Yellen said in prepared remarks that were her first public comments since the US elected Republican Donald Trump to be the country’s next president.

Yellen, who was to deliver the remarks to Congress’s Joint Economic Committee at on Thursday morning, said the economy appeared on track to grow moderately, which would help bring about full employment and push inflation toward the Fed’s 2% target.

via The Guardian

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