Bloomberg: Market expects Fed to keep interest rates unchanged, with greater uncertainty brought by Trump's new policies

According to BlockBeats, on March 19th, according to Bloomberg, among the 108 forecasters surveyed by Bloomberg, each one predicted that the Federal Reserve's FOMC would maintain policy unchanged, with a target range upper limit of 4.5%. This will be the second consecutive time that the Federal Reserve has maintained its policy unchanged. Previously, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and his colleagues implemented three interest rate cuts at the end of last year, totaling 1 percentage point. The Federal Reserve and the entire economy are facing an exceptionally uncertain outlook for economic growth and inflation in the coming months and quarters. In terms of inflation, the increase in tariffs has raised concerns about another rise in consumer prices - the Federal Reserve has not yet completed its task of bringing prices back to its 2% target. The latest reading of the core personal consumption expenditure index (excluding food and energy) is 2.6%. The Federal Reserve previously predicted a year-end inflation rate of 2.5%. As for the outlook for the Federal Reserve's new policy interest rate, the question is whether the median forecast of officials is consistent with the December forecast of two interest rate cuts in 2025. KPMG Chief Economist Diane Swonk said, "The trajectory of interest rate cuts will have considerable dispersion due to uncertainty