NEWS: The Fed is expected to postpone another interest rate hike until the third quart
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A Reuters survey of economic analysts showed that expectations for the Federal Reserve to maintain a patient stance were slightly longer than last month's survey, with analysts expecting the Federal Reserve to wait until the third quarter to raise interest rates again and then remain unchanged.
An earlier Reuters-like survey also showed that the ECB may have missed the chance to raise interest rates before the next economic downturn.
The latest survey, conducted on March 11-14, interviewed more than 100 economic analysts, and the results echo recent comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Powell. Powell said the Fed "did not feel the need to rush" to adjust interest rates again.
"The Fed... is not in a hurry to raise interest rates again immediately," said Harm Bandholz, chief U.S. analyst at UniCredit, Italy. "So we exclude the possibility of a rate hike in June. Although the Federal Reserve may intend to raise interest rates later, we still expect the window of opportunity to close in the second half of this year.
Analysts unanimously expected the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates unchanged at its policy meeting on March 19-20. 55% of respondents said they might raise interest rates at least once before the end of September. The median forecast indicated that interest rates would rise by 25 basis points to 2.50-2.75%.