Economics
Fed Scraps Patient Approach and Opens Door to Potential Rate Cut
- Holds rates steady for now as 8 officials project cuts in 2019
- Fed Chair Powell says he fully intends to serve four-year term
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The Federal Reserve signaled it was ready to lower interest rates for the first time since 2008, citing “uncertainties” that have increased the case for a cut as officials seek to prolong the near-record U.S. economic expansion.
While Chairman Jerome Powell and fellow central bankers left their key rate in a range of 2.25% to 2.5% on Wednesday, they dropped a reference in their statement to being “patient” on borrowing costs and forecast a larger miss of their 2% inflation target this year.