Recent Updates
- China: Fixed Asset Investment, Online Retail Sales, IP (Apr)
- Construction PMIs - Ireland (Apr)
- Japan: Corporate Goods Price Index (Apr)
- New Zealand: Composite PMI, Performance of Service Index (Apr)
- Hong Kong: Centaline Property Affordability Ratio (Apr)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
EMU IP Drops Month-to-Month and Year-over-Year
Industrial output among EMU members fell by 1.8% month-to-month in March...
U.S. Producer Price Inflation Moderates in April
The Producer Price Index for Final Demand increased 0.5% during April...
U.S. Housing Affordability Plunges in March
Affordable homes are in short supply...
U.S. Unemployment Claims Edge Upward
Initial claims for unemployment insurance filed in the week ended May 7 rose to 203,000 (-58.9% y/y)...
U.K. Shows Scatter-Shot IP Trends
Industrial output in the United Kingdom is mixed and convoluted...
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 |