Investors can breathe a sigh of relief as Maybank Kim Eng’s research team anticipates no changes to interest rates at the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee meeting on June 15 to 16. Despite inflation jitters, Fed fund rates are seen to remain at 0.00-0.25%, while the pace of asset purchases will likely be maintained at US$120 billion ($158.4 billion) per month.
But growing murmurs about a rate hike within the FOMC is likely to grow louder as the FOMC rotating panel for 2022 takes on a hawkish bias. Despite the 2021 rotating panel having a slight dovish bias, seven out of the 18 members saw a rate hike taking place in 2023 during March’s FOMC meeting. A more hawkish Fed could see greater support for monetary policy tightening.
