Reuters
Fed set to deliver another big rate hike, debate December downshift
U.S. central bankers are expected to keep their inflation fight in high gear this week, even as they intensify a debate over when to downshift to smaller interest rate hikes so as to avoid sending the world’s biggest economy into a tailspin. With the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation running at more than three times its 2% target, the outcome of the central bank’s policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday is not in doubt: it will raise rates by three quarters of a percentage point for the fourth straight time, bringing the target overnight lending rate to a 3.75%-4.00% range. After the last meeting, in September, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that “at some point” it will be appropriate to slow the pace of rate hikes and take stock of how the sharpest rise in borrowing costs in 40 years is affecting the economy.
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