Federal Reserve cuts interest rates by a quarter point
The Federal Reserve approved its second consecutive interest rate cut Thursday, moving at a less aggressive pace than before but continuing its efforts to rightsize monetary policy.
In a follow-up to September’s big half percentage point reduction, the Federal Open Market Committee lowered its benchmark overnight borrowing rate by a quarter percentage point, or 25 basis points, to a target range of 4.50%-4.75%. The rate sets what banks charge each other for overnight lending but often influences consumer debt instruments such as mortgages, credit cards and auto loans.
Markets had widely expected the move, which was telegraphed both at the September meeting and in follow-up remarks from policymakers since then. The vote was unanimous, unlike the previous move that saw the first “no” vote from a Fed governor since 2005. This time, Governor Michelle Bowman went along with the decision.
The post-meeting statement reflected a few tweaks in how the Fed views the economy. Among them was an altered view in how it assesses the effort to bring down inflation while supporting the labor market.
“The Committee judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance,” the document stated, a change from September when it noted “greater confidence” in the process.
Fed officials have justified the easing mode for policy as they view supporting employment becoming at least as much of a priority as arresting inflation.
On the labor market, the statement said “conditions have generally eased, and the unemployment rate has moved up but remains low.” The committee again said the economy “has continued to expand at a solid pace.”
Officials have largely framed the change in policy as an attempt to get the rate structure back in line with an economy where inflation is drifting back to the central bank’s 2% target while the labor market has shown some indications of softening. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has spoken of “recalibrating” policy back to where it no longer needs to be as restrictive as it was when the central bank focused almost solely on taming inflation.
Powell will answer questions about the decision at his 2:30 p.m. ET news conference. The November meeting was moved back a day due to the U.S. presidential election.
Source: CNBC
