Goldman expects Fed to cut rates twice more

London: Goldman Sachs Group Inc economists predict Federal Reserve officials will cut interest rates at each of their next two meetings — in part because of a desire to keep bond markets calm.

Having lowered their benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 2-2.25 per cent in July, policy makers will execute reductions of the same size in September and October with risks tilted toward more and/or bigger cuts, Jan Hatzius and Sven Jari Stehn said in a report released late Tuesday.

As well as uncertainty over the US-China trade war, the economists rationalise their call by arguing the central bank is in a hall of mirrors in which officials place greater weight on bond-market pricing when making decisions than historically.