Consumers saddled with high credit card and mortgage rates held onto a source of solace in recent months: A forecast from the Federal Reserve promising long-awaited interest rate cuts.
The economy has refused to cooperate, however, casting that financial relief into doubt.
Fresh price data released on Wednesday marked the third consecutive month of firmer-than-expected inflation; while a blockbuster jobs report last week revealed that employers are hiring with gusto.
The hot economy casts doubt over interest rate cuts, likely delaying their widely anticipated start this summer and possibly removing them entirely from the Fed’s calendar this year, some economists told ABC News, while acknowledging that multiple rate cuts remain within the realm of possibility.
“The future is uncertain — I wouldn’t bet the farm,” Joseph Gagnon, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former Federal Reserve official, told ABC News.
“You might get no cuts this year or you might get three or four cuts.”
