Will the US job report affect the Fed's rates decision?

NEXT week, the US Federal Reserve will have to decide whether or not to raise interest rates. And the questions on the minds of Fed watchers in Washington and Wall Street this week is if and how the new employment report, issued by the US Labour Department last Friday, and its data on the American job market would influence the choices that Fed chair Janet Yellen and her colleagues will make when the central bank's policy committee gathers in Washington on Sept 16.

Has the time finally come to exit the zero interest rate policy that the central bank has maintained for more than six years?

Until a few weeks ago, the consensus among officials and investors was that the inflation "hawks" - those who believe that even marginal concerns over inflation should trigger a rate increase and who have been gaining ground in the last six months - were about to declare victory as the members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) were quite close to deciding to hike interest rates before the end of the year and as early as September.