Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in June indicates that the labor market remains strong and that economic activity has been rising at a moderate rate. Job gains have been solid, on average, in recent months, and the unemployment rate has remained low. Although growth of household spending has picked up from earlier in the year, growth of business fixed investment has been soft. On a 12-month basis, overall inflation and inflation for items other than food and energy are running below 2 percent. Market-based measures of inflation compensation remain low; survey-based measures of ... (full story)

The Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark rate by a quarter-point Wednesday as an insurance policy not against what’s wrong with the economy now but what could go wrong in the future. Amid President Donald Trump’s intense political pressure and persistent market expectations, the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee dropped the target range for its overnight lending rate to 2% to 2.25%, or 25 basis points from the previous level. In approving the cut, the FOMC cited “implications of global developments for the economic outlook as well as muted inflation pressures.” The committee called the current state of ... (full story)

This is a comparison of Wednesday’s FOMC statement with the one issued on June 19 after the Fed’s previous policy-making meeting. Text removed from the June statement is in red with a horizontal line through the middle. Text appearing for the first time in the new statement is in red and underlined. Black text appears in both statements. (full story)