US Fed cuts key rate a quarter point and signals fewer cuts ahead
Deccan ChronicleWASHINGTON: The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter point Wednesday and signaled a slower pace of cuts ahead, as uncertainty grows over inflation and President-elect Donald Trump's economic plans. While inflation has "eased significantly," the level remains "somewhat elevated" compared to the Fed's long-term target of two percent, Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday. Just two cuts In updated economic forecasts published alongside the rate decision, members of the Fed's rate-setting committee penciled in just two quarter-point rate cuts in 2025, down from an earlier prediction of four, and hiked their headline inflation outlook for next year, from 2.1 percent to 2.5 percent. "Rate cuts will come faster than the Fed expects, as unemployment tops the new forecast," Pantheon Macroeconomics chief US economist Samuel Tombs wrote in a note to clients published after the decision.