The Federal Reserve Board could increase the federal funds rate as much as 0.5 percentage points, to 5.75%, Thursday.
Kurt Karl, the U.S. chief economist at Swiss Reinsurance Company, Zurich, gave that assessment today in an economic review.
The economy appears to be strong, and inflation appears to be increasing, and that could cause the Fed to trade in 0.25-percentage point increases for a bigger increase, Karl says.