At the start of Februa🌟ry, traders were betting that the Fed was almost done raising rates. What a differ༒ence a month makes. 

Officials at the Fed and European central banks indicated this week that containing inflation could mean keeping interest rates higher for longer than they had previously estimated, after a series of economic reports in February showed inflation, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:the economy, running hotter than expected. 

That high rates will put more of a financial squeeze on the🎃 budgets of businesses and consumers. 

Markets are now betting the Fed won’t stop raising its benchmark fed funds rate until it hits a 5.25% to 5.5% range or higher, according to the CME Fedwatch tool, which forecasts rate hikes based on trading activity.

“Last month we received a barrage of data that has challenged my view in January that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) was making significant progress in moderating economic activity and reducing inflation,” Christopher Waller, a Fed governor and member of the central bank’s policy committee, said in prepared remarks on Thursday. 

IThe data has “tilted recent Fed communications in a more hawkish direction,” economists at Deutsche Bank said in a commentar𒀰y on Wednesday, reiterating their prediction that the Fed will keep hiking until its rate hits the 5.5% to 5.75% range, which would be one percentage point higherꦺ than it is now, and the highest since 2001. 

Officials at the Bank of England and the European Central Bank🃏 voiced ꦉsimilar sentiments.

The British economy had proved “slightly stronger than anticipated,” BOE chief economist Huw Pill said in a speech Thursday. The European Central Bank could respond t𝕴o stubborn inflation in the European Union by eventually raising its interest rate to 4%, a full percentage point and a h✨alf higher than its current level, ECB official Pierre Wunsch told reporters Thursday.