China News Service, Washington, March 8 (Reporter Sha Hanting) US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said at a hearing of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on the 8th local time that the Fed has not yet decided on the rate hike rate in March.

　　When Powell attended the hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on the 7th, he said that the Fed's future interest rate hikes may exceed previous expectations.

In this regard, some analysts believe that Powell's speech indicates that the Fed will raise interest rates by 50 basis points in March.

On the 7th, US stocks fell significantly.

　　At the hearing on the 8th, Powell emphasized that the Fed has not yet made a decision on the rate hike in March, and the Fed will analyze the employment, inflation, and retail data to be released next before deciding on the specific rate hike rate.

　　Powell also said that the published data show that the final interest rate level may be higher than previously expected.

If the overall data show that the pace of tightening needs to be accelerated, the Fed will accelerate the pace of interest rate hikes in the future.

　　The Associated Press believes that Powell's speech on the 8th was "more moderate" than his attitude towards raising interest rates on the 7th, emphasizing that "no decision has been made."

Analysts believe that based on the economic data to be released next, the Fed does not rule out the possibility of raising interest rates by 25 basis points in March.

　　The Federal Reserve will hold a regular monetary policy meeting on March 21-22 and announce a decision to raise interest rates.

　　On February 1 this year, the Federal Reserve announced that it would raise the target range of the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to a level of 4.5% to 4.75%.

It was the eighth consecutive rate hike by the Fed since last March.

　　At the hearing that day, Powell also urged Congress to raise the federal government debt ceiling as soon as possible to avoid government debt default.

Powell stressed that raising the debt ceiling is "the only option."

　　The U.S. federal government debt reached the statutory debt limit of $31.4 trillion on January 19.

The U.S. Treasury Department began taking extraordinary measures on January 19 to avoid a default on government debt.

The Congressional Budget Office expects the federal government to default on its debt between July and September this year if Congress does not address the debt ceiling in a timely manner.

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