Overseas, China is trying to boost credit at a time of economic slowdown. The European Central Bank acknowledges the weak growth of the euro zone, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) downgraded its global economic growth forecast and warned of a sharp drop in Global trade due to tariff disputes among major countries.
At the end of a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, Federal Reserve policymakers must determine how much risk all these factors pose to the nearly 10-year-old expansion of the U.S. economy.
The recent 35-day closure of some U.S. government agencies has delayed the release of important economic data, including retail sales and gross domestic product (GDP), making the task of Federal Reserve policymakers even more difficult.
Before the announcement of this week's policy resolution, analysts said that if the reasons for supporting caution were not strong enough, the sudden economic fog would force the Federal Reserve to be cautious.
Federal Reserve officials "clearly sound like they're going to suspend... they don't know the exact performance of the economy because the data haven't been released yet," said Melanie Baker, senior analyst at Royal London Asset Management.
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