WASHINGTON — More than a month after the Federal Reserve announced an increase in interest rates, a new survey finds 36% of Americans believe that rate hikes are bad for the economy.
The research was carried out by WalletHub, which surveyed 1,000 participants between June 26 and July 3.
Conversely, the survey also found that 30% of participants believed that interest rate hikes are good for the economy, while 34% were uncertain or undecided.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority (56%) believed that rate hikes wind up hurting their own overall personal finances, though 26% were uncertain. Just 18% found that hikes were actually beneficial to their financial health.
When it came to credit scores, 22% of those surveyed believed that rate hikes were harmful toward their score, and 7% believed the increases were helpful toward their credit. (Of course, six in 10 participants think their rates are too high as is.)
The Federal Reserve has issued four rate hikes since December of 2015. Two of these four have taken place in 2017, the first in March and another in mid-June. The most recent case brought the target rate from 1% to 1.25%.
Interestingly, WalletHub found that 44% of Americans do not know the last time the Fed increased rates last.
The Federal Open Market Committee met on Wednesday and voted against raising rates for now. However, rates are expected to increase again later in the year. Economic forecasters such as Fannie Mae’s Economic & Strategic Research Group and Kiplinger’s Economic Outlooks have predicted that rates will increase during December’s meeting.
WalletHub’s report also notes that two-thirds of participants thought that the Federal Reserve System needed structural adjustments. It goes on to point out that 14% wanted to get rid of the Federal Reserve System completely.
In case you were wondering, the average credit score for Americans currently stands at 699.
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