Strong case for US Fed interest rate increase in Dec

Williams: ‘The data show that the hiccup we saw in a couple of labour reports has reversed.’ – Bloomberg

WASHINGTON: There’s a “strong case” for a Federal Reserve interest rate increase in December assuming US economic data continues to be encouraging, San Francisco Fed president John Williams said, adding that the slope of increases after an initial move is “most important.”

The US central bank’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee will convene in Washington on Dec 15-16 to discuss a possible policy move. Most economists in a Bloomberg survey and traders of federal funds futures expect lift-off from near-zero, where the bank’s key lending rate has been since 2008, at that meeting.