A series of troubling inflation reports in recent days is likely to lead Federal Reserve officials to consider markets more surprising than they expected a 0.75-cent-point interest rate hike at their meeting this week.
Even before officials began the quiet period ahead of their meeting on June 4, they had indicated they were ready to raise interest rates by half a percentage point this week and again at their meeting in July. But he also said that his outlook depends on the growth of the economy as he expected. Last week’s inflation report The Labor Department showed a higher-than-expected jump in prices in May.