NEW YORK (Reuters), – Goldman Sachs’ (NYSE:) forecasts that the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise interest rates five more times than it did in 2022. This is compared with four previous increases. An increase in March was expected according to a late Friday note by its economists.

Since Wednesday’s Fed statement that it is likely to raise interest rates in March, and on Wednesday confirmed plans to stop bond purchases for the month of March in what Fed Chairman Jerome Powell promised would be a continuous battle to control inflation, economists are scrambling to keep up to date rate-hike expectations.

At the conclusion of Wednesday’s meeting, Powell said a decision would be made in coming months on when to start shrinking the central bank’s government bonds and mortgage-backed securities.

Jan Hatzius and David Mericle, Goldman economists, stated in a note that they expected the Fed to raise rates in March and may and then announce its start of balance sheet reductions in June. Then follow up with increases in July and September. In the fourth quarter they expect that the Fed will resume its quarterly pace with one increase in December and then a return to 1.25-1.5% in the final year.

The economists said they had revised up their inflation path expectation following data this week while in addition, “Chair Powell’s comments earlier this week made it clear that the Fed leadership is open to a more aggressive pace of tightening.”

Goldman indicated that the Fed should continue to hike its rates by three times in 2023. The Fed is expected to keep the current terminal rate of 2.5-2.75% through 2024.

Goldman had earlier in January stated that it expects four increases this year, and that the balance sheet will be reduced as soon as possible.