WASHINGTON — (CNN) It sounds increasingly likely that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in December.
In a speech Wednesday, Fed chair Janet Yellen said the economy has been improving in recent weeks. Translation: unless there is a major hiccup with a bad jobs report on Friday morning, the Fed will probably lift interest rates off their historic lows around 0% when it meets on December 15 and 16.
“On balance, both economic and financial information received since our October meeting has been consistent with our expectations of continued improvement in the labor market,” said Yellen in a closely watched speech at the Economic Club of Washington D.C.
But Yellen stressed that the Fed will move slowly and cautiously in 2016.
While the vast majority of economists and stock market watchers now anticipate the Fed will raise rates from about 0% to 0.25% in December, there is a lot of uncertainty about what comes next.
“Of course, even after the initial increase in the federal funds rate, monetary policy will remain accommodative,” Yellen said.
The two main factors holding the U.S. economy back are the weak global economy, especially China, and the strong U.S. dollar, which has been making American exports very expensive abroad.
Yellen thinks these factors won’t be as big of an issue going forward.
China slowdown “will likely continue to be modest and gradual,” she said.
Overall, Yellen continues to emphasize how far the economy has come since unemployment peaked at 10% in October 2009. Now unemployment is down to 5%.
When the Fed starts to hike rates, it “will be a testament…to how far our economy has come in recovering from the effects of the financial crisis and the Great Recession,” she concluded.
The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2015 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. (Photo: CNN)
