Brian Chappatta, Columnist

Fed Will Raise Rates in March, Then Wing It From There

Jerome Powell makes clear it’s time for the central bank to fight inflation, but he admits policy makers don’t have a good sense of where the economy is headed.

January 26, 2022 at 9:49 PM UTC

By Brian Chappatta

Brian Chappatta is managing editor of Bloomberg News' leveraged finance and distressed debt teams. He was previously managing editor and team leader of its wealth group. Before that he was a Bloomberg Opinion markets and finance columnist and a bonds reporter for Bloomberg News.

Jerome Powell did little to aggressively quash the more hawkish policy forecasts.
Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

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Can the Federal Reserve truly be “nimble,” “flexible” and “adaptable,” or is it simply too big?

That is now the most pressing question for traders in 2022. After the U.S. central bank said Wednesday that increasing interest rates “will soon be appropriate,” Chair Jerome Powell bluntly acknowledged the phrase means that a hike from the current range of 0% to 0.25% is coming after its next gathering. “I would say that the committee is of a mind to raise the federal funds rate at the March meeting,” he said.