- Interest rates remain at the current level between 5.25 and 5%
- Officials said the decision to keep rates stable was driven by a “strong” economy
- However, they left the door open to rising future financing costs
The Federal Reserve announced today that interest rates will remain at their current level between 5.25 and 5.5 percent.
The long-awaited decision marks the third time in seven policy meetings this year that the central bank has not raised interest rates, slowing the pace of increases to give time to assess the impact of its aggressive drive to tame inflation.
Officials unanimously agreed on the decision to keep interest rates within their current range – where they have been since July – as they acknowledged that economic activity had remained “strong” in the third financial quarter.
This formulation was a step up from the “solid pace” of activity the Fed talked about at its September meeting. This follows recent news that US GDP grew at an annualized rate of 4.9 percent in the third financial quarter.
The Federal Reserve announced today that interest rates will remain at their current level between 5.25 and 5.5 percent
Economists have been surprised by the resilience of consumer spending in the face of rampant inflation. Annual inflation is currently 3.7 percent – still nearly double the Fed’s 2 percent target.
This is a breaking news story, more to come.