Raising interest rates even higher is not completely off the table.

From Marketplace, I'm Sabrie Beneshore, in for David Brancaccio.

Don't expect an interest rate cut anytime soon.

That is the message from several officials at the Federal Reserve this week.

That means rates on everything from mortgages to car loans will be higher for longer

as the Fed continues to try and wrestle down inflation.

But some Fed officials have hinted that higher for longer may not be the end of it.

Christopher Lowe is chief economist at FHN Financial in New York and joins us.

Hi Chris.

Good morning, Sabry.

How real is the possibility that interest rates could actually

go up this year?

I think it's highly unlikely but this week we heard two members of

the Federal Open Market Committee at the Fed suggest that while it's not their primary forecast, it could happen.

And how are markets taking that possibility?

You know, the bond market takes everything the Fed. taking that's

the bond market takes everything the Fed says very seriously and I suspect that's

exactly why these Fed officials are making comments like that. If you look back at the

first quarter, growth is tracking close to 3%, which is good.

Inflation, of course, was disappointingly high

in all three months of the quarter.

And that's partly because market interest rates plummeted last year after the Fed indicated it was going to cut rates.

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