The Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged for the second time in its past three meetings, a sign that it’s moderating its fight against inflation as price pressures have eased.
The Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged for the second time in its past three meetings, a sign that it’s moderating its fight against inflation as price pressures have eased.
But central bank officials also signaled that they expect to raise rates once more this year.
Consumer inflation has dropped from a year-over-year peak of 9.1% in June 2022 to 3.7%. Yet it’s still well above the Fed’s 2% target, and its policymakers made clear Wednesday that they aren’t close to declaring victory over the worst bout of inflation in 40 years.
“The process of getting inflation sustainably down to 2% has a long way to go,” Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference. “We’ve seen progress, and we welcome that, but we need to see more progress” before concluding that it’s appropriate to end the rate hikes.
