Rate hike anticipated as Yellen era winds down

WASHINGTON — Investors seem certain about this: The Federal Reserve is going to raise interest rates this week for the third time this year.

They’re less sure about what the central bank might have in store for 2018, and they will look to Janet Yellen’s final news conference as Fed chair Wednesday for any clues.

Will the Fed’s policymaking change once Yellen steps down in February and is succeeded by Jerome Powell? Powell was a Yellen ally who backed her cautious stance toward rate hikes in his five years on the Fed’s board. Yet no one can know how his leadership or rate policy might diverge from hers.

What’s more, Powell will be joined by several new Fed board members who, like him, are being chosen by President Donald Trump. Some analysts say they think that while Powell might not deviate much from Yellen’s rate policy, he and the new board members will adopt a looser approach to the regulation of the banking system.

Most analysts have said they think the still-strengthening U.S. economy will lead the Fed to raise rates three more times next year. A few, though, have held out the possibility that a Powell-led Fed will be compelled to step up the pace of rate hikes as inflation finally picks up and the economy, perhaps helped by the Republican tax cuts, begins accelerating.

At his Senate confirmation hearing last month, Powell impressed his listeners as an evenhanded moderate who favored the kind of incremental stance on rate hikes that both Yellen and her predecessor, Ben Bernanke, embraced. The committee approved Powell’s nomination and sent it to the full Senate, where his confirmation is considered certain.

Besides Powell, Trump has so far chosen two new members for the seven-member board. And he has the opening to nominate three more, including a Fed vice chair. In his view of the Fed, Trump has made clear that he favors low rates. But he has also expressed a desire to pull back on many of the regulations that were imposed on banks after the 2008 financial crisis. Trump and many other Republicans argue that those regulations are too burdensome, especially for smaller banks.

On Wednesday, at her final news conference as Fed chair, Yellen may feel at liberty to go further than usual in illuminating the Fed’s outlook for the coming months.

“I would expect her to be more

vocal about her beliefs,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University, Channel Islands. “This could be one of the more interesting press conferences she has given.”

AP Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will give her last news conference Wednesday.