High stakes at Jackson Hole symposium as Powell surveys US’s rocky prospects

Presidential candidates, bankers and economists will all be keen to hear what the Fed chair foresees for interest rates

The eyes of the world's financial markets will be firmly trained on the Rocky Mountains resort of Jackson Hole on Friday. This is when Jerome Powell will deliver a much-anticipated speech at what, over more than four decades, has become the Davos for central bankers.

In an address loaded with economic and political significance, the chair of the Federal Reserve - the US's central bank - is expected to lay out a road map for US interest rates.