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Economy in Brief
U.S. ISM Services Index Weakens in February
The ISM Composite Index of Services Activity declined to 55.3 during February...
U.S. Mortgage Applications Edge Up
The MBA Mortgage Loan Applications Index edged up 0.5% w/w (5.4% y/y) in the week ended February 26...
U.S. Light Vehicle Sales Weaken in February
Sales of light vehicles declined 5.6% during February (-6.7% y/y) to 15.88 million units...
U.S. Gasoline & Crude Oil Prices Continue to Strengthen
The price of regular gasoline strengthened to $2.71 per gallon (11.9% y/y) in the week ended March 1...
Post Covid-19 Turbulence Rocks and Weakens German Retail Sales
German and other European retail sales have been put through a sort of test of fire in the wake of the covid-19 virus arrival...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller March 20, 2019
The Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously at today's meeting to leave the federal funds rate target in a range between 2.25% and 2.50%. The action was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. It was indicated at the meeting that no further increases in interest rates were likely this year.
The Fed observed that economic activity had slowed from late-last year due to weaker growth in both household and business spending.
On the pricing front, inflation was noted to have cooled due to lower energy costs and stable 2% growth in prices elsewhere.
The Fed released updated projections for economic activity at this meeting. It lowered expected four-quarter growth in real GDP to 2.1% in 2019, 1.9% in 2020 and 1.8% in 2021 from 2.3%, 2.0% and 1.8%, expected earlier. Core PCE price inflation was unchanged at 2.0% during the next three years. The expected unemployment rate was raised to 3.7% in the fourth quarter of 2019, 3.8% at yearend 2020 and 3.9% at yearend 2021 from 3.5%, 3.6% and 3.8%, respectively.
The press release for today's FOMC meeting can be found here.
Current | Last | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Federal Funds Rate Target | 2.25% - 2.50% | 2.25% - 2.50% | 1.82% | 1.00% | 0.40% | 0.13 |