US central bank expected to cut rates later this month
Incoming data will shape size of anticipated rate cut
Fed policymakers agree inflation is cooling

Sept 3 Reuters As recently as two and a half months ago, most U.S. central bankers didn39;t see an interest rate cut in the cards at their Sept. 1718 meeting.

By the end of last month, when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said it was time to start lowering borrowing costs, nearly all of his colleagues thought so too.

In large part, that was because a wide range of data moved in one direction. That pushed Fed policymakers to reassess the risks to their outlook, including whether their chief concern should be persistent inflation, labor market weakness, a deterioration in business or household financial conditions, a potential policy mistake, or some combination of those factors.

It39;s not one thing that causes everyone to move. It39;s different people focus on different data, different indicators, different risks, and then they all end up in the same place, said Kristin Forbes, an economics professor at MIT39;s Sloan School of Management and a former member of the Bank of England39;s policysetting committee.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Kansas City Fed39;s annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, last month, where Powell declared the time had come for U.S. rate cuts, Forbes said And that39;s where a good Fed Chair can bring people together to get the outcome they want, but often by drawing on…