But some analysts said the Fed would be forced to move faster than it currently plans.
“Regardless of the exact timing of the first rate hike, we still believe that the big story next year will be an unexpectedly strong pickup in wage growth and price inflation,” said Paul Ashworth, chief United States economist at Capital Economics. This trend, he predicted, “will force the Fed into a much more aggressive policy-tightening cycle than the Fed’s projections currently suggest.”