U.S. Fed Lowers Interest Rates

Washington, October 31, 2019, SPA — The Federal Reserve (Fed) on Wednesday cut interest rates for the third time this year to help sustain U.S. growth despite a slowdown in other parts of the world but signaled no further rate reductions ahead unless the economy deteriorates.
The decision to cut the U.S. central bank’s key lending rate by a quarter-percentage point to a target between 1.5 and 1.75 percent was widely anticipated by financial markets, where expectations for further rate cuts after October have diminished significantly in recent weeks.
“We believe that monetary policy is in a good place,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters after the central bank announced its decision. “We took this step to help keep the economy strong in the face of global developments and to provide some insurance against ongoing risks.”
“We see the current stance of monetary policy as likely to remain appropriate as long as incoming information about the economy remains broadly consistent with our outlook,” Powell said.
With the U.S.-China trade war “a step closer” to resolution and it seeming less likely that Britain would crash out of the European Union, Powell said the outlook for the U.S. economy continues to be for “moderate” growth, a strong labor market, and inflation rising back to the Fed’s 2 percent goal.
Only “a material reassessment” of the central bank’s outlook could drive it to cut interest rates further, Powell said.