Fed policymakers signal rate cuts ahead

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond president Thomas Barkin. — Reuters

FEDERAL Reserve (Fed) policymakers are increasingly confident that inflation is cooling enough to allow interest-rate cuts ahead, and they will take their cues on the size and timing of those rate cuts not from stock-market turmoil but from the economic data.

That was the shared message of three US central bankers speaking on Thursday who otherwise had slightly different takes on exactly where the economy stands a week and a day after they decided to hold the policy rate steady but signalled a reduction as soon as next month.