Baku, Azerbaijan, March 16
By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:
The US Federal Reserve has no important reasons to increase the key interest rate, as the US and global economy experience no positive changes at the moment, Azerbaijani economic expert Farhad Amirbayov told Trend in an interview March 16.
He made the remarks commenting on possible decision of the reserve system regarding interest rate to be adopted today, on March 16.
"Honestly, for now I adhere to a very discreet opinion in this issue," Amirbayov said. "I think that during the year the main interest rate of the reserve system will gradually grow, but this process will be slow. At the moment there has been no significant improvement of either the US or global economy."
He said that in general, the US Federal Reserve System is unlikely to raise its key interest rate to the desired level. The expert added that major changes may occur after the presidential election in the US.
It is doubtful that the Federal Reserve System will be able to increase the interest rate to the planned level in 2016, according to the expert.
He noted that if the interest rates increase sharply, the majority of financial institutions will go bankrupt.
But if those who want to keep everything unchanged gain a victory, then the interest rates will unlikely rise and even if they increase, it won't be in significant amount, he said.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the US Federal Reserve System increased the base interest rate from 0-0.25 percent per annum to 0.25-0.5 percent in December 2015 for the first time since June 29, 2006.
However, during the latest meeting of the Federal Reserve System, the interest rates were kept unchanged in late January 2016.
Edited by SI
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