Do the Fed remove “patient” from the policy statement in next monetary meeting?

Next Fed's monetary policy meeting is scheduled to be on March 18. Investors speculate that the Fed will remove "patient" from its outlook for monetary policy as the labour market has continued to strengthen. The U.S. economy added 295,000 jobs in February, exceeding expectations for a rise of 241,000 jobs, after a gain of 239,000 jobs in January.

The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 5.5% in February from 5.7% in January, beating forecast of a decline to 5.6%. That was lowest level since May 2008.

But the U.S. inflation remains very low. The low inflation is mostly driven by lower oil prices. The WTI crude oil price might decline further as production output is still high.

Recently released U.S. economic data was mixed. The U.S. producer price index fell 0.5% in February, missing forecasts of a 0.2% increase, after a 0.8% drop in January. The U.S. retail sales dropped 0.6% in February, missing expectations for a 0.5% increase, after a 0.8% decline in January.

Analysts said that the bad weather is responsible for the weaker-than-expected economic data.

I think that the Fed will not remove "patient" from its outlook for monetary policy this time. The Fed will monitor closely the next data releases to rule out the effect of the bad weather.