A team of economists at Citi, led by Andrew Hollenhorst, said a loose labour market would ease inflationary pressures in the services sector and weak global conditions would depress commodity prices. This would lead the Federal Reserve to act aggressively, with a 25 basis point cut expected at each meeting until next July, bringing the federal funds rate to between 3 per cent and 3.25 per cent. This is well below market expectations, which expect the federal funds rate to be around 4 per cent by then.