Investors obsess over the Federal Reserve's "dot-plots". These charts show therough trajectory that senior Fed officials think its benchmark interest rate should follow over the next few years. Before every second meeting of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), members say how high they think the rate should be at the end of the current year and the two subsequent ones. Each estimate is then plotted as an anonymous dot on a chart, to provide a sense of the range of views within the FOMC. For instance, at its meeting in March, seven of the 17 members thought that the benchmark rate should be 0.625% by the end of the year (see chart). They will now be preparing new dots for their next meeting, on June 16th-17th.
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