The Federal Reserve is expected to hike interest rates by 75 basis points for the fourth time in a row at today's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. After all, core inflation readings are rising rather than falling, the economy has recovered from two consecutive quarters of decline, and job creation is increasing, with job vacancies outnumbering unemployed Americans by four million.
policy meeting, during which the US central bank is widely expected to settle on a 75 basis point hike in benchmark interest rates in its fight against rising inflation.
The Federal Open Market Committee meeting is scheduled at a time when major central banks around the world are confronted with the Herculean task. The task of taming multi-decade increases in consumer prices without damaging economic growth in the face of recession warnings.
History of Fed Interest Rate Hikes
Since March 2022, the US central bank has raised the COVID-era benchmark interest rate by a total of 300 basis points in five instalments to 3-3.25 percent. A 75-bps increase in the range would be the fourth consecutive back-to-back revision of this magnitude in the last 20 months.
Previously, Federal Reserve interest rate hikes had significant impacted the prices of the broader crypto and US equity markets in both positive and negative ways. However, last month's interest rate hikes had a dramatic affect on the cryptocurrency market. As a result, the broader cryptocurrency market bleeds severely.
Impact on Crypto Market of another 75bps hike
Markets are bracing for the fourth 75-basis-point hike in a row, with investors expecting the Fed to decrease its pace before ending the rate-hiking cycle in March.
As we all know, the global cryptocurrency market is heavily correlated with the US equity market. As a result, the prices of cryptocurrency has dramatically influenced by any data related to inflation or US equity market released by the US government.
What to expect next
According to Michael Gapen, chief U.S. economist at Bank of America, “we believe they hike solely to reach the end point. We do think they will increase by 75 percent. We think they do open the door to a slower pace of rate hikes beginning in December.”
Additionally, experts also believe that central banks will eventually have to reduce the scale of rate hikes in order to avoid undermining economic development. What do you think, will the rate hikes slow down their pace by December? Comment below your views.
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