US central bank to hike rates

The Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve will be meeting from June 13th -14th to discuss the country’s of monetary policy.

Although some doubts swirled following the Fed’s meeting in May, it is widely expected that the U.S. central bank will raise interest rates up from 1.00 to 1.25 percent during this week’s meeting. But amid sluggish economic growth and a suboptimal inflation rate, it is uncertain that the Fed will raise interest rates again following the expected increase this week.

This hike is a departure from the Fed’s status quo, which, following the financial crisis, has been to maintain low interest rates to promote economic activity. A rise this week would demonstrate its desire to return interest rates to historically normal levels; between 1971 and 2017, the U.S. interest rate has averaged 5.8 percent.

It is also expected that this week’s meeting will allow the board to hash out its initial plans to curtail the Fed’s enormous $4.5 trillion balance sheet for the 2018 fiscal year.