Federal Reserve leaves interest rates unchanged

The Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it will leave the record interest rate unchanged as policy makers continue to assess uncertainty about inflation and economic conditions in light of federal political transformations.

The central bank’s decision leaves the standard federal funds in the range of 4.25 % to 4.5 %.

The move comes after the Federal Reserve has left interest rates at this level at its previous meeting in January, which came in the wake of three consecutive discounts in its previous meetings-which included a reduction at the 50 Basis point in September and a pair of discounts of 25-Basis points in November and December.

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The FOOC Open Market Committee (FOMC), which directs the monetary policy movements of the Central Bank, has noticed in its announcement that “[u]NCERTRYI has increased on the economic view. “He added that it focuses on risks on both sides of its double mandate to enhance the maximum employment and maintain inflation by 2 % in the long run.

The President of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said that the customs tariff revolves around companies’ expectations and inflation expectations for consumers. (Ting Shen / Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

In addition to announcing its decision on interest rates, FOMC issued a summary of the economic expectations that showed that central banking policy makers predict discounts in the interest rate of 25 Basis this year, followed by two reductions of this size in 2026 and one in 2027.

Policy makers expected the slow economic growth and high unemployment in 2025 than they were in their last expectations in December.

They see real GDP (GDP) grows by 1.7 % at the end of 2025, a decrease from 2.1 % estimate, while the unemployment rate is expected to be 4.4 % in December – an increase of 4.3 % in the last forecast. The unemployment rate was 4.1 % in February.

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The economic expectations of the federal reserve coach show the Personal Consumption Expenditure Index (PCE) and the preferred inflation scale of policy makers, by 2.7 % at the end of this year – higher than 2.5 % higher estimated at the end of last year. This is just higher than 2.5 % of PCE reading the reported Ministry of Commerce for February.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell noted in his opening notes at a press conference, “Some measures near inflation have increased.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve kept with fixed interest rates in the range of 4.25 % to 4.5 %. (Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

He also said that “the labor market is not a source of significant inflationary pressure,” and pointed out that “inflation has dramatically over the past two years, but it is still somewhat high for our long -term goal by 2 %.”

Powell was asked about the amount of higher inflation expectations, at least partially, to the customs tariff.

“You may have seen that the enlargement of goods has increased significantly in the first two months of the year,” Powell said. “So some-it is clear that the answer is some of them, a good part of it, comes from the definitions. But we will work, as well as from other forecasters, to try to find the best possible way to separate the inheritance of inflation from induction.”

Edward Lawrence “Fox Business”, head of the Federal Reserve, asked about the timing of when the Trump administration policies on economic data such as unemployment and inflation will appear.

The head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said that the Trump administration has not yet important at the national level. (Yuki Iwamura / Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

“For example, the demobilization of the workers that takes place here, it is definitely meaningful to the people concerned, and it may be meaningful to a specific neighborhood, area or area. But at the national level, they are not yet important, but we do not know. We do not know to what extent will that go, we will discover more.”

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In response to a question about the recent prediction that suggested that there is a high possibility of stagnation and whether he was concerned about it. Powell pointed out that from a historical point of view, at any specific time, there is a possibility of 1 in 4 in the recession in the next 12 months.

“The question is whether these possibilities are, in this current position high. I will say this, we do not publish such predictions. If you look at external predictions, a number of predictors may be generally, a number of them raised two months, and people said that inks had said to some extent.” “So I moved, but it is not high.”

When asked whether he was expected to reduce interest rates in the Federal Reserve in May, Powell indicated that he believed the central bank “is in a good position to wait for more clarity and not in any calf.”

The market still believes that the Federal Reserve is likely to reduce prices in May, where the CME Fedwatch tool has placed the probability tool by approximately 55 %. It also shows an almost equal possibility between the Federal Reserve, which ended the year after it was reduced two or three times in 2025, with 31 % chance of three discounts and 30 % probability of discounts.

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“While the result of this meeting was widely in line with the expectations of the market participants, it clearly shows that the puzzle that the Federal Reserve Bank has to balance growth and inflation,” said Charlie Ribli, the chief investment strategy in Allianz Investment Management.

Ribli noted that there is a wide range of uncertainty about inflation expectations that are likely to prevent the federal reserve from the cutting and added, “With the approach to the sit -in in playing, this federal reserve meeting showed the difficulty in making decisions in periods of uncertainty and admit that it may not be the best action at all.”

The next policy meeting of the Federal Reserve is scheduled to be held from May 6 to 7.