Newsroom

February 01, 2017

FOMC leaves rates, policy unchanged

The Federal Open Market Committee left the federal funds target rate and monetary policy unchanged after a two-day meeting that concluded yesterday.

The meeting was the committee's first since it voted in December to raise rates to the range of 0.5 to 0.75 percent.

"As expected, the Fed declined to raise rates in its first meeting since a quarter-point rate hike in December," NAFCU Chief Economist and Director of Research Curt Long wrote in a Macro Data Flash Wednesday. "Inflationary pressures are beginning to emerge, but not to the point that the Fed feels any immediate urgency to raise rates further.

"In its last meeting, Fed officials indicated that they expect three rate hikes in 2017, but today's statement provided no clues on when the next one may come," Long continued.

According to notes from the December meeting, the committee's revised projections for the coming years include three quarter-point rate hikes in 2017, three in 2018 and three in 2019.