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Economy in Brief
FOMC: Fed Again Holds Funds Rate Near Zero, Begins To Plan Asset Purchase "Tapering"
In the FOMC meeting today, the Fed again left the federal funds rate target in the range of 0.0% to 0.25%...
U.S. Mortgage Applications Rise for Both Purchase and Refinance
The MBA Loan Applications Index surged 4.9% in the week ended September 17...
Italian Industrial Turnover Cools - Remains Strong
Italian industrial turnover continues to cool, but industrial sales still run at a very strong pace...
U.S. Housing Starts Rebounded in August
Housing starts rebounded in August, rising 3.9% m/m (17.4% y/y) to 1.615 million units...
U.S. Current Account Deficit Continued to Widen in Q2
The U.S. current account deficit widened slightly to $190.3 last quarter from $189.4 billion in Q1...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller May 1, 2019
The Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously at today's meeting to leave the federal funds rate target in a range between 2.25% and 2.50%. The decision was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey.
The Fed stated that the labor market was "strong" and that the economy was growing at a "solid" rate. Growth in consumer demand and business investment were observed to have slowed.
On the pricing front, the Fed noted that total inflation and price gains, excluding food & energy, were running below the Fed's 2.0% target. Survey-based measures of long-term inflation expectations were little changed.
The press release for today's FOMC meeting can be found here.
| Current | Last | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Funds Rate Target | 2.25% - 2.50% | 2.25% - 2.50% | 1.82% | 1.00% | 0.40% | 0.13 |
