The minutes of the Fed’s May 1-2 meeting released Wednesday showed that officials were generally upbeat about the prospects for the economy and said that the next rate hike would “likely soon be appropriate.” Many economists expect that hike to happen at the next meeting in mid-June. But they also talked about “a number of risks and uncertainties,” including fallout from the administration’s get-tough trade policies, the minutes showed. At that meeting, officials indicated they expected to raise rates a total of three times this year, matching the number of rate hikes in 2017. But other analysts viewed the minutes as striking a more balanced tone about how many rate hikes will be needed this year. They suggest that, even with a rate hike in June, the Fed may be content with only three for the entire year.

Source: National Post May 23, 2018 18:13 UTC