It's a big week for the U.S. economy.

From Marketplace, I'm Sabrie Benashore, and for David Brancaccio.

Right now, the Federal Reserve has its foot on the brake pedal of the U.S US economy, meaning interest rates are high and

staying high. They're trying to slow things down to get inflation down to where

the Fed wants it, around 2%. Unfortunately over the past few months inflation has been

highly uncooperative and so as the Fed meets this week it has to decide what to do about

that the overwhelming assumption is nothing for now. Just keep

that economic break pedal steady, keep rates where they are. The question is when

will that change?

There is a lot of economic data coming out this week that could influence the answer to that

question.

Marketplace's Nova Safo has the details.

Gone are predictions that interest rate cuts could start as early as March.

Inflation has heated back up a bit, while the job market has remained healthy and

the economy has maintained growth, albeit at a slower pace.

So there's little doubt that the Federal Reserve is not yet ready to lower rates.

In fact, some officials recently have speculated about no cuts at all this year.

On Wednesday, when Fed officials released their latest

policy decision, many will be looking for clues about the months ahead. So what

could change? For one, how consumers view the economy. They power 70% of it and consumer

confidence has been dipping each month since January. If it keeps falling,

spending could follow. The latest consumer confidence reading comes out

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