Post US election turmoil could hinder Fed December rate hike, Lockhart says

Turmoil following the result of the US presidential elections might see the Federal Reserve forego an interest rate hike when it next meets on 14 December, a top official said.

“You can never rule things out post-election,” the president of the Federal Reserve bank of Atlanta, Dennis Lockhart said.

“We may end up with enough turmoil around the election to create a different set of conditions,” Lockhart said at the National Association of Realtors annual convention in Orlando, Florida.

“There are other things that go on in the world that give pause, and you can’t completely rule those out,” he added.

Nonetheless, the economic bar for standing still was quite high.

“I don’t know what the committee will decide in December but for me there’s a relatively high bar in economic terms to not moving,” he said.

His remarks came as some market commentary highlighted the risk that no clear result might be known immediately after the end of the elections given that the two main rivals were running nearly neck-to-neck in the polls.