As expected the Federal Reserve held its benchmark interest rate steady at 1.5% to 1.75% today.
The median forecast from Federal Reserve officials pointed to no change in interest rates through 2020.
“Our economic outlook remains a favorable one despite global developments and ongoing risks,” Fed chair Jerome Powell aid at a press conference following the decision. “As long as incoming information about the economy remains broadly consistent with this outlook, the current stance of monetary policy likely will remain appropriate.”
The Fed would prefer to remain on the sidelines in an election year–although that stance certainly won’t make everyone happy–but the central bank remains heavily leveraged to events in the real world and especially to developments in the U.S-China trade war.
“We expect moderate growth to continue,” Powell continued in his press conference. “We reduced [interest rates] by three quarters of a percentage point. This shift has helped support the economy and has kept the outlook on track.”
But Fed officials now also predict the economy will grow by just 2%next year. That would be a substantial slowdown from 2.2% growth in 2019 and 2.9% in 2018.
And that projection doesn’t leave the Fed with a lot of room for maneuver if global and U.S. growth dip further.
After the Fed announcement the yield on the 10-year yields fell below 1.8%, finishing the day down 5 basis points to 1.79%. The dollar slipped with the Dollar Spot index off 0.29%.
