Interest Rates Not Going Back to Zero

Apollo Chief Economist

We are going through an asset price recession and not an economic recession. Why? Because we should expect the Fed funds rate to decline from the peak at 5% in June toward the equilibrium interest rate which keeps the economy at full employment and inflation at 2%. The Fed estimates that this so-called r-star is around 2.5%, see also the Fed’s latest dot plot. The implication for investors is that the level of the risk-free rate is resetting higher than where it was before the pandemic, see chart below. And this permanent increase in the costs of capital has a wide range of consequences for corporate America and financial markets, including how to think about credit spreads and stock prices, in particular tech and growth.

Chart showing a forecast of the Fed funds rate
Source: Apollo Chief Economist

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