Hong Kong’s de facto central bank left its base rate unchanged after a similar move overnight by the US Federal Reserve, leaving borrowers in the city with a longer wait for funding costs to fall.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced its decision on Thursday morning to keep the city’s base rate at 4 per cent. Hours earlier, the Fed also kept its target rate in the range of 3.5 per cent to 3.75 per cent, after the first meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) this year.
The pause came after the Fed and the HKMA cut their key interest rates by a total of 75 basis points over the last three FOMC meetings since September.
“I think, and many of my colleagues think, it is hard to look at the incoming data and say that policy is significantly restrictive at this time,” Fed chairman Jerome Powell said in a media briefing after the FOMC meeting, indicating that there was no need to rush to cut rates.
The Fed’s decision was widely expected. More than 97 per cent of traders expected no change, according to the CME’s FedWatch data based on the Fed funds futures contracts on Wednesday.
“Following the hawkish rate cut in December and a cumulative easing by 75 basis points over the last three meetings, the FOMC is expected to adopt a wait-and-see stance,” said Michael Krautzberger, the chief investment officer for public markets at Allianz Global Investors, on Tuesday.
“Recent macro data, including stronger-than-expected third quarter gross domestic product growth and a decline in the unemployment rate in December, point to an ongoing robust economic environment.”
