Global| Dec 11 2019FOMC Holds Interest Rates Steady; Signals Stability Through 2020
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
The Federal Reserve kept the target range for the Federal funds rate at 1.50% to 1.75% at today's FOMC meeting. The lack of action was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Today's action was unanimous amongst FOMC voters. [...]
The Federal Reserve kept the target range for the Federal funds rate at 1.50% to 1.75% at today's FOMC meeting. The lack of action was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey.
Today's action was unanimous amongst FOMC voters.
Comments which accompanied today's action were little changed from earlier meetings, including that the labor market has stayed solid and that economic activity continues to rise at a moderate rate. The pace of consumer spending continues strong but business investment and exports remain weak. The Fed remarked again that international developments could play a role in determining future action.
Accompanying today's meeting were scattered revisions to economic estimates. The real GDP growth estimates were unchanged at 2.2% in 2019, 2.0% in 2020, 1.9% in 2021 and 1.8% in 2022. Core PCE price inflation should come in this year at 1.6% (revised from 1.8%), then 1.9%, 2.0% and 2.0% in the following three years, respectively. The civilian unemployment rate estimate of 3.6% this year was reduced from 3.7% and will be followed by 3.5% (revised from 3.7%) in 2020, 3.6% in 2021 (revised from 3.8%) then 3.7% in 2022 (revised from 3.9%).
The press release for today's meeting can be found here.
| Current | Last | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Funds Rate Target | 1.50%-1.75% | 1.50%-1.75% | 1.82% | 1.00% | 0.40% | 0.13 |
Tom Moeller
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Prior to joining Haver Analytics in 2000, Mr. Moeller worked as the Economist at Chancellor Capital Management from 1985 to 1999. There, he developed comprehensive economic forecasts and interpreted economic data for equity and fixed income portfolio managers. Also at Chancellor, Mr. Moeller worked as an equity analyst and was responsible for researching and rating companies in the economically sensitive automobile and housing industries for investment in Chancellor’s equity portfolio. Prior to joining Chancellor, Mr. Moeller was an Economist at Citibank from 1979 to 1984. He also analyzed pricing behavior in the metals industry for the Council on Wage and Price Stability in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Mr. Moeller received the award for most accurate forecast from the Forecasters' Club of New York. From 1990 to 1992 he was President of the New York Association for Business Economists. Mr. Moeller earned an M.B.A. in Finance from Fordham University, where he graduated in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from George Washington University.
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