Wall Street’s eyes will be on the Federal Reserve this week, as the board meets Wednesday to decide whether to cut interest rates. Northeastern University economist Bob Triest says there are two reasons why the Fed will likely wait to cut rates until its next meeting in September.
“The inflation data has surprised the Fed and economists a couple of times this year — earlier in the year it came in higher than had been expected and recently has come in a little lower — so the Fed may feel a little cautious about prematurely declaring that inflation is well on its way to hitting the Fed’s target of 2%,” says Triest, professor of economics at Northeastern. “The second reason would be that the Fed doesn’t like to surprise people with the policy moves they make, and they haven’t really prepared the public or financial markets for their cutting rates at this meeting.”
