Fed Holds Benchmark Rate at 4.25% to 4.50% for Third Straight Meeting

The Federal Open Market Committee declined to move its benchmark lending rate on Wednesday, holding the target range at 4.25% to 4.50%. The decision marks the third consecutive meeting at which the committee has left rates unchanged.

The vote was unanimous among voting members. The committee's statement noted that unemployment has stabilized and that job gains have slowed, while inflation has eased from earlier peaks but remains above the 2% objective the central bank uses as its long-run target.

The central bank has held rates at this level since its prior reduction cycle concluded. Officials have tied future adjustments to incoming data on prices and hiring. No schedule for a subsequent meeting's outcome was offered beyond the standard calendar of policy sessions.

Chair Jerome Powell has repeatedly framed the current stance as restrictive, meaning the policy rate sits above what officials estimate as neutral, the level that neither speeds nor slows the economy. The committee reiterated that assessment in the language accompanying Wednesday's decision.

Rate decisions influence borrowing costs across the economy, including mortgage rates, credit card pricing, and the rates banks charge one another for overnight loans. The federal funds rate serves as the reference point for many of those instruments.

The committee's projections, released alongside the decision, continue to show a path of gradual reduction in the target range over the coming year. Officials have not committed to a specific number of adjustments, and each session is decided on the data available at that time.

The next scheduled policy meeting occurs in the weeks ahead. Officials will receive two employment reports and two readings of the consumer price index before convening, giving them a fresh set of figures on hiring and prices.

Voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee consist of the governors of the Federal Reserve Board and the presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks, with a rotating set of regional bank presidents holding votes in any given year.