The Chief Economist at Riyad Bank, Dr. Nayef Al-Ghaith, said that the speech of the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, was sharp about the policy of raising interest rates.
In an interview with Al-Arabiya, today, Thursday, Al-Ghaith attributed the acrimony to the Fed’s desire to send a message to the markets not to read the slowdown in the pace of raising interest rates to 25 basis points, that it had managed to control the inflation rate.
The chief economist at Riyad Bank indicated that the latest forecasts last December indicated a continuation of the interest rate hike during the current year and a decrease in the next year.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points, as was widely expected, after raising them by 50 basis points last December following four consecutive increases of 75 points, bringing the benchmark interest rate to a range from 4.50% to 4.75%, which is the highest level since 2007, that is, before the global financial crisis.