The Federal Reserve won’t ease interest rates if core inflation softens, according to a new Bloomberg survey of economists, contradicting investors who expect the central bank to cut later this year.
Respondents to the April 23-25 poll saw the target range for the benchmark federal funds rate staying right where it is -- at 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent -- through 2020, according to median expectations. Only two of the 39 economists polled forecast a rate cut in 2019. Pricing in interest rate futures, meanwhile, showed investors assigned almost a 70 percent probability to a rate cut by December.
