Barclays sees early U.S. rate increase unlikely

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve is unlikely to raise short-term interest rates in early 2017 if the U.S. economic expansion slows and the Trump administration introduces tariffs that would hurt American exports, Barclays economists said on Wednesday.

"In our view, the slowdown in growth early in the year associated with tariffs would preclude an early year rate hike," Barclays' U.S. economists Michael Gapen and Rob Martin wrote in a research note after the Fed, as expected, raised rates by a quarter point, to 0.50 percent to 0.75 percent, earlier Wednesday.

(Reporting by Richard Leong)

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