These conditions have the potential to have a powerful impact on emerging market economies such as Trinidad and Tobago, when they reach us. As expected, the US Federal Reserve ended its era of quantitative easing at its October 2014 meeting.
Next year, for the first time in eight years, we are likely to see a hike in the Fed funds rate, probably in summer of 2015. There is considerable uncertainty in global financial markets about the pace and magnitude of these expected increases in US interest rates.