The Federal Reserve’s interest rate committee will meet Tuesday and Wednesday this week, and the central bankers appear set to keep rates where they are despite criticism from President Trump and price pressures mounting from his trade war.

Markets are confident the Fed will maintain its hold after pausing cuts during its January and March meetings. One prediction algorithm based on futures contract prices put the probability of the Fed keeping interbank lending rates steady at 98.2 percent Monday.

That confidence is underpinned by some strong fundamentals that came in the economic data last week, including inflation that eased to a 2.3-percent annual increase and 177,000 jobs added to the economy in March, along with unemployment that stayed even from February to March at 4.2 percent.

However, economists and businesses have been warning that higher prices are coming as a result of tariffs from the White House, which are at their highest overall levels in more than a century.

Even President Trump acknowledged the coming price squeeze last week and has been telling the central bank to start cutting rates again in order to offset those effects.

“The Fed should lower its rate!!!” Trump wrote Friday on social media.

“This would be a PERFECT time for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut interest rates,” he wrote last month. “Cut interest rates, Jerome, and stop playing politics!" Trump said of his fellow Republican.

Trump shifted his argument about the price........

© The Hill