Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell

After new Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell issued prepared testimony and answered questions from lawmakers yesterday, many industry experts say the Federal Open Market Committee could raise interest rates four times this year, one more than previously predicted.

“At the December meeting the median participant called for three rate increases in 2018,” Powell said Tuesday, according to CNBC. “Since then, what we’ve seen is incoming data that suggests a strengthening in the economy and continuing strength in the labor market. We’ve seen some data that in my case will add some confidence to my view that inflation is moving up to target. We’ve also seen continued strength around the globe. And we’ve seen fiscal policy become more stimulative.”

Although Powell didn’t formally changing his projections, estimates from the CME Group released Tuesday show that the markets have placed odds of four or more rate hikes in 2018 at 35 percent, up from 24 percent Monday.

“NAFCU had previously forecast a rate hike in March and cautioned members that four rate hikes in 2018 was a distinct possibility,” Curt Long, chief economist and vice president of research at the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions, said in a statement. Powell’s remarks “reaffirm those sentiments. Most observers have penciled in a March move, and markets are coming around to the idea that one hike-per-quarter could be the Fed’s playbook over the course of the year.”

Powell in his testimony said the U.S. economy grew at a solid pace over the second half of 2017 and into this year. Monthly job gains averaged 179,000 from July through December, and payrolls rose an additional 200,000 in January. This pace of job growth pushed the unemployment rate down to 4.1 percent, the lowest level since December of 2000, he said.