By Mel Dorman, June 25, 2021
By Mel Dorman, June 25, 2021
Federal Reserve officials said last Wednesday that they expected to raise interest rates from rock bottom sooner than they had originally forecasted. They are slowly reducing their bond purchases, which shows their increasing confidence that the economy will rebound after the pandemic.
By the end of 2023, policy makers expect to make 2 interest rate increases. Before, over half of the officials had anticipated rates would remain close to zero. That is where they have been since March 2020. And were expecting to stay until at least 2024 to allow the economy to recover. Officials now see rates rising to 0.6 percent by the end of 2023, up from 0.1 percent.
Lenders often increase their rates based on the federal reserve. An increase in the federal reserve rate will likely translate to interest rates rising as well. Fortunately, anyone in the market right now is still experiencing record low rates for the near future.