Sunday, May 18, 2008
The most interesting economic numbers to be released this week won’t be backward-looking. Federal Reserve policymakers on Wednesday will give a sense of how they see the economy shaping up over the next three years in projections that accompany the release of minutes from the Fed’s last policymaking meeting. In January, the Fed governors and regional bank presidents forecast that gross domestic product growth would range from 1 to 2.2 percent. Their inflation forecasts ranged from 2 to 2.8 percent. Now we get to see how much the economy’s deterioration this spring has led policymakers to adjust their predictions. If the growth forecasts are optimistic, more rate cuts are unlikely.