By Erika Morphy | National
This is it. Barring an unexpected meltdown or global calamity, the Federal Reserve Bank will start raising interest rates in September. It has all but taken out digital billboard space in Times Square to telegraph its intent.
On Monday, Atlanta Fed President and CEO Dennis Lockhart delivered a speech to the Atlanta Press Club, in which he highlighted the economic progress the US has made since the Great Recession and the anticipated Federal Open Market Committee decision to move the federal funds rate off zero. All that previous talk about the decision being data-dependent — talk to which business has clung for dear life? It is still true but Lockhart for one is not waiting for a 100% all clear from the data.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen will probably raise interest rates in September.
“As the Committee approaches what I consider a historic decision, I am not expecting the data signals to point uniformly in the same direction. I don’t need this. I’m prepared to see mixed data. Data are inherently noisy month to month and quarter to quarter. Given the progress made over the recovery and the overall recent tone of the economy, I for one do not intend to let the gyrating needle of monthly data be the decisive factor in decision making.”
