{"id":528663,"date":"2026-03-17T11:39:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T11:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/528663\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T11:39:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T11:39:17","slug":"fed-expected-to-hold-rates-steady-as-global-uncertainty-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/528663\/","title":{"rendered":"Fed expected to hold rates steady as global uncertainty looms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Federal Reserve will announce its latest interest rate decision Wednesday. The last time the Fed changed the federal funds rate <a title=\"\" class=\"interallink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marketplace.org\/story\/2025\/12\/10\/fed-cuts-key-rate-by-quarterpoint-amid-internal-discord\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was in December<\/a>. Then, we got <a title=\"\" class=\"interallink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marketplace.org\/story\/2026\/01\/28\/fed-keeps-interest-rates-unchanged-despite-pressure-from-trump\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a pause in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This time around, between elevated inflation and a shaky job market, the Federal Reserve is setting the stage for another interest rate hold. <\/p>\n<p>Former Fed governor Randy Kroszner said the war in the Middle East basically cemented the hold \u2014 here in the U.S. and around the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlmost every major central bank is having a meeting this week and I think almost all of them are going to stay on hold,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Uncertainty forces economies to stop, observe, and recalibrate, said former Fed adviser Ellen Meade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf an <a title=\"\" class=\"interallink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marketplace.org\/story\/2026\/03\/09\/is-the-us-headed-for-a-repeat-of-the-1973-oil-crisis\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">oil shock<\/a> or something very similar to it is short lived, probably the best thing a central bank can do is just wait,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Wait to see how long the war lasts. And wait to see how deeply oil prices affect other prices.<\/p>\n<p>Because, Meade said, expensive oil is \u201ca stagflationary shock.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pricey gas <a title=\"\" class=\"interallink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marketplace.org\/story\/2022\/04\/14\/why-gas-prices-loom-so-large-in-the-way-we-think-about-the-economy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">could make consumers pull back<\/a> on other spending, which would slow down the economy. Pricey gas could also make goods more expensive and push inflation up.<\/p>\n<p>Usually, central bankers write this kind of shock off as a one-time thing \u2014 as transitory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat language has sort of been tarred and feathered, I think, by the experience during the pandemic,\u201d Meade said. <\/p>\n<p>Back then the Fed insisted inflation was transitory, but it ended up peaking <a class=\"externallink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/opub\/ted\/2022\/consumer-prices-up-9-1-percent-over-the-year-ended-june-2022-largest-increase-in-40-years.htm#:~:text=Consumer%20Price%20Index-,Consumer%20prices%20up%209.1%20percent%20over%20the%20year%20ended%20June,largest%20increase%20in%2040%20years&amp;text=Over%20the%2012%20months%20ended,month%20period%20ending%20November%201981.\">above 9%<\/a> and still hasn\u2019t come all the way down to the target rate of 2%. <\/p>\n<p>David Wessel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the Fed has to use different messaging this time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey can\u2019t count on people being so calm about inflation because we\u2019ve had inflation in recent memory,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>If people already believe inflation is likely, <a title=\"\" class=\"interallink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marketplace.org\/story\/2026\/02\/25\/can-high-inflation-expectations-lead-to-higher-inflation\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">it could drive more inflation<\/a>. Wessel said that possibility is enough for the Fed to be more hesitant than usual about cutting rates in the coming months.<\/p>\n<p>Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Federal Reserve will announce its latest interest rate decision Wednesday. The last time the Fed changed the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,20236,101,2800,9569,4011,23624,1139],"class_list":["post-528663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-central-bank","tag-economy","tag-federal-reserve","tag-interest-rate","tag-oil-prices","tag-uncertainty","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}