Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. (Photo: AP)
The U.S. economy is growing below its potential but not enough to justify a 50 basis points rate cut at the Federal Reserve's policymaking meeting next week, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.
Zandi, like many economists, expects the Fed will cut the federal funds rate 25 basis points on July 31 though the number anticipating 50 basis points had been growing until recently, including economists at Morgan Stanley.
Feeding those expectations was a recent talk by New York Fed President John Williams suggesting that the Fed "act quickly to lower rates at the first sign of economic distress" because the central bank has limited room to maneuver during a downturn given current low rates. (A spokesman for the New York Fed later walked back Williams' comments, noting they were "not about a potential policy actions at the upcoming FOMC meeting.")
Fed funds are now trading in a range between 2.25% and 2.50%, or at roughly half the five-percentage-point rate cut that the Fed engineers during a typical downturn, said Zandi.
Unlike other Wall Street economists, Zandi doesn't expect the Fed will follow up a rate cut next week with more cuts before the 2020 presidential election, assuming the U.S. doesn't impose more tariffs on Chinese imports, GDP stays close to 2% and unemployment near 3.5% — which he admits is a "big assumption."
