Very Slow
The Fed increased the target for its benchmark rate by a quarter point to a range of 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent. The median estimate among policy makers is for a level of 1.375 percent at the end of 2016.
“The market is pricing in a very, very slow pace of tightening — even slower than the Fed’s median forecast,” Bill Irving, manager of the Fidelity Government Income Fund, wrote in an outlook report Dec. 18. “This presents a risk that rates could rise faster than is expected.” Boston-based Fidelity has $2 trillion in assets.