BNP Paribas: If energy prices remain high, the Federal Reserve may release a signal to raise interest rates next month According to a report by Golden Finance, interest rate strategists at BNP Paribas predict that if energy prices remain high and the US unemployment rate remains stable, the Federal Reserve will raise the possibility of a rate hike at its next meeting in April. Federal Reserve officials kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday local time, while acknowledging the increased uncertainty brought about by the Middle East conflict, which has led to a significant rise in oil prices. At a press conference, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell stated that officials need to see progress in inflation in order to resume interest rate cuts. If we don't see progress, we won't cut interest rates, "he said. BNP Paribas stated in a report that even without war, it seems difficult to achieve progress in inflation. Before the Federal Reserve's meeting on Wednesday local time, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that wholesale inflation in the United States unexpectedly accelerated in February before the US and Israel began bombing Iran. Powell has clarified the policy direction, which is towards a more symmetrical policy outlook, "James Egelhof, Britney Jackson, and Guneet Dhingra of BNP Paribas wrote in a report on Thursday. We believe that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has essentially adopted a symmetrical policy outlook, with two conditions: the war will have a lasting impact on energy prices, and the US labor market will demonstrate resilience like it did in response to previous negative policy shocks, "strategists wrote. As the market has already digested the expectation that there will be no interest rate cuts in the next few meetings, the committee may judge that it can wait for a meeting interval cycle to obtain greater certainty on these two conditions