US looks set to claim victory in global rate race
THE US is likely to beat the UK and Eurozone in raising interest rates off their record lows.
“We see [US] rates rising in the middle of the year – more likely to be later than earlier,” Kully Samra, a managing director at investment bank Charles Schwab, told City A.M. Jameel Ahmad, chief market analyst at Forex Time agreed. “The minutes have stressed its data dependent, so they will likely wait and see,” he told City A.M. “I think we’re looking at the first rate hike in September.”
Both Ahmad and Samra note strong jobs and inflation figures. The number of Americans claiming jobless benefits for the first time fell to 291,000 last week and Consumer price inflation was 1.7 per cent in October, according to figures released yesterday.
Meanwhile, expectations of the first UK rate hike have been pushed to the end of 2015, and the Eurozone has only just begun its own asset purchase programme.