On March 21st, Schroders Global Investment Strategist Azad Zangana stated that since the beginning of 2024, strong economic data in the United States has once again changed rate expectations and financial market prices. According to the latest data, the Federal Reserve is expected to cut rates by 100 basis points by December 2024 or earlier. In the latest forecast, Schroders Global Investments have raised their forecast for the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate for 2024 from 1.3% to 2.7%, significantly higher than the previous consensus expectation of 2.1%. They also expect the U.S. GDP growth rate to slow down to 1.9% in 2025, a significant increase from the earlier forecast of 0.8%. In recent months, due to increased uncertainty in global economic growth expectations, volatility in interest rates and bond markets has continued to rise. The facts show that the U.S. economy is showing strong resilience, while inflation continues to slow down. Despite a marginal decrease in new job positions, employment expectations are expected to remain healthy, which will benefit consumer spending. As inflation pressure continues to decrease, improvements in real income growth will also benefit consumer spending. Azad Zangana said, the "ideal scenario of slowing inflation" seems to be happening in reality. In January of this year, the overall inflation rate of the core Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the U.S. fell to 3.1% year-on-year, lower than 6.4% a year ago. The worst period of high inflation pressure seems to have passed. Energy (especially natural gas prices) has significantly fallen, and food price inflation is expected to follow the same trend after wholesale prices have dropped. However, the core inflation rate (excluding food and energy) remains high. The core inflation rate is usually seen as a gauge of potential underlying price pressures, so investors will only believe that inflation is under control when this indicator further decreases. Nevertheless, central banks around the world have begun to change their policy stance, no longer signaling hawkishness as they have been since 2023. Most central banks have abandoned the rhetoric of excess demand and the prospect of inflation and rising interest rates. Instead, most central banks are more focused on the downside risks to economic growth. This is a clear signal of a shift in monetary policy and reflects that interest rate cuts are likely. Azad Zangana mentioned that at the beginning of 2023, the money market expected the Federal Reserve's fund rate to reach slightly above 4.5% by December 2023 and to decrease by about 100 basis points before December 2024. With the Federal Reserve raising rates in February 2023 and reiterating its stance to "keep rates high for longer," these expectations rose again. After the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), as the money market began to anticipate a rate cut by the end of 2023, market pricing fluctuated by 150 basis points, resulting in a pessimistic sentiment in the financial markets. However, the Federal Reserve persisted in its stance, believing it was necessary to control high inflation, and subsequently raised rates further in two policy meetings. After the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in December of last year, the Federal Reserve stated that it was considering loosening policy, but given the strong economic performance, the Federal Reserve hinted at continuing to adopt a strategy of keeping rates high for longer.