The World Bank has become the latest global organization to urge the U.S. Federal Reserve to delay raising interest rates until 2016, amid growing expectations that the central bank could hike as early as September.
The financial institution said on Wednesday that keeping rates at record lows would help avoid the kind of financial market volatility witnessed during the “taper tantrum” of summer 2013.
It comes as strong jobs data in the U.S. have boosted expectations that September may be the month when the Fed raises interest rates for the first time in nine years.
Lead author of the World Bank’s bi-annual Global Economic Prospects report, Franziska Ohnsorge, said while the “lift-off” of rates would likely proceed smoothly, the risks surrounding emerging markets are more acute.
