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A new survey released by the Wall Street Journal finds most don't expect the Federal Reserve to begin raising interest rates until mid-summer 2015 or later.
In a poll of economists nationwide, the Journal found only about a third believe the Fed will start hiking up rates before June next year. That number is down from 45 percent of economists in the publication's August survey.
The decline came after the government released its August employment summary, reporting the addition of only 142,000 new jobs after what had been a promising streak of 200,000+ gains.
On the back of that report, Susan Sterne, president of Economic Analysis Associates, told the Journal she's "expecting some softer than consensus data for awhile," moving her prediction for the first rate hike from March to June.
Overall, the majority of economists pegged June as the most likely month for the Fed to begin raising short-term interest rates, with approximately three in 10 choosing that month. About 24 percent predicted rate hikes in March or April compared to 35 percent in August, while an increasing number predicted the first hike in July or September: 26 percent compared to 18 percent in the last survey.
With the end of the Fed's monthly bond-buying program apparently close at hand, Chairwoman Janet Yellen has said the central bank would wait for a considerable time after the program stops before raising rates, though she also said that time may arrive earlier if the labor market continued to make great strides.
The Wall Street Journal's survey comes on the heels of a study from the San Francisco Fed, which showed investors anticipate a slower build-up in interest rates than policymakers at the Fed.
"Our analysis shows that, on balance, the public seems to expect more accommodative policy than [Federal Open Market Committee] participants," researchers said.
