ANKARA
Leading economists predicted Tuesday that the U.S. Federal Reserve is likely to signal an interest rate rise in its statement Wednesday.
The Federal Reserve started its two-day meeting on interest rate policy Tuesday, and will issue a statement on rates Wednesday.
In her testimony before Congress on Feb. 24, Federal Reserve governor Janet Yellen explained that the signal for a rate rise within two months would be the removal of the word 'patient' from the statement after the monetary policy committee meeting.
Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, told The Anadolu Agency that the Fed could well be ready for a rate hike, and doesn't' expect to see the word 'patient' this time.
Ashworth also said that monetary tightening likely to be more aggressive than many expect. "We expect the Federal Open Market Committee’s statement on Wednesday to begin a move to normalize monetary policy," he added.
James Knightley, an economist at ING Bank in London agreed that a rate hike is imminent.
"We believe the weather has been a disruptive influence here and, with consumer confidence up at pre-crisis highs, we expect to see stronger data in the next few months. As such, we continue to favor a June rate hike from the Fed and, given recent comments from several Fed speakers, suspect that there will be hints within the FOMC statement that action may soon be forthcoming."
RBC assistant chief economist Paul Ferley said to expect the rate hike soon, and doesn't expect to see the word 'patient' in the statement Wednesday.
The Turkish Central Bank left all key interest rates unchanged Tuesday, one day before the Fed statement. The one-week repo rate stayed at 7.50 percent, and the overnight lending rate at 10.75 percent, the bank said in a statement.
