Federal Reserve keeps interest rates steady

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday said it was “good news” that inflation had decreased over the past year. The decreased inflation was due to the Fed raising interest rates, he claimed in statements to reporters. The central bank has raised interest rates 11 times from nearly zero to roughly 5.25–5.5 percent since March 2022 to try to level off inflation at 2 percent. The U.S. annual inflation rate currently sits at just over 3 percent, per a government report analyzing last month’s economic data.

Is the Fed done with interest rates altogether? Powell said the central bank would proceed with caution and would rely on incoming data to make its future decisions. Fed officials on Wednesday indicated that they see themselves cutting the current interest rate next year by three-quarters of a percent in three separate reductions. The Federal Reserve has maintained its current interest rates for roughly three months now.

Dig deeper: Listen to Nick Eicher’s Monday Moneybeat discussion with David Bahnsen on The World and Everything in It podcast about the U.S. economy.