CENTRAL FLORIDA (November 3, 2023) – In light of today’s cooled jobs report, the Federal Reserve made the right decision not to raise interest rates again this week, says University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith.
“The labor market is finally taking a slow path that’s consistent with the Fed eventually hitting its 2-percent inflation target, but still not anytime soon,” said Snaith, director of UCF’s Institute for Economic Forecasting. Snaith predicts it could be 2025 until inflation falls that much.
Instead, Snaith says interest rates are likely to remain elevated through all of 2024, even as a recession is unlikely to happen before the end of the year, if at all.
“We’re on a protracted path,” Snaith said. “And right now, slow and steady wins the race.”
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Sean Snaith, Ph.D., is the director of UCF’s Institute for Economic Forecasting and a nationally recognized economist in the field of economics, forecasting, analysis and market sizing. He has been recognized by Bloomberg News as one of the country’s most accurate economic forecasters and has served as a consultant for both local governments and multi-national corporations. Before joining UCF’s College of Business, Snaith held faculty positions at Pennsylvania State University, American University in Cairo, the University of North Dakota and the University of the Pacific. Now heading UCF’s Institute for Economic Forecasting, Snaith and the institute strive to provide complete, accurate and timely national, state and regional forecasts and economic analyses as valuable resources to the public and private sectors for informed decision making. More of Snaith’s work is available at http://iec.ucf.edu or you can follow him @SeanSnaith.
