Fed leaves rates unchanged but plans further hikes in 2023

2023-06-14 18:23:00

At the end of their two-day meeting, Federal Reserve officials agreed on Wednesday to unanimously keep interest rates stable, between 5% and 5.25%, following 10 consecutive hikes since March 2022. The consensus of market analysts was expecting a pause.

This decision should allow“assess additional information and its implications for monetary policy”indicates in its press release the monetary institution.

Ready for a new raise as early as July

The members of the committee are also ready to raise rates as early as July if the US economy and inflation do not slow further.

The majority of members of the Federal Reserve anticipate two more rate hikes in 2023 and have raised their growth and inflation forecasts in the published projections, respectively, to 1.00% (from 0.4% in March) and to 3.2% ( once morest 3.3% in March). ” IAlmost all of the participants see it as probable that further rate hikes will be necessary this year to bring inflation down to 2%”, underlined Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Fed, referring however to “a moderate pace”, during his press conference.

The New York Stock Exchange turned red a few minutes following the announcement of the US central bank’s decision. The Dow Jones index lost 1.13%, the Nasdaq fell 0.62% and the S&P 500 fell 0.58%. Investors were reacting to the announcement of future hikes by the end of the year.