Federal Reserve Meeting Minutes: Agree to Keep Interest Rate Unchanged, Economic Outlook Remains Highly Uncertain

On August 20th local time, the Federal Reserve released the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting held from July 29th to 30th. The minutes indicated that the Federal Reserve agreed to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 4.25%-4.5%. During the monetary policy discussion at this meeting, members unanimously agreed that, despite fluctuations in net exports affecting the data, recent indicators suggested that economic activity growth in the first half of the year had slowed. The inflation rate remains slightly high, and uncertainty about the economic outlook remains elevated. To support the Committee's objectives, almost all members agreed to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 4.25% to 4.5%. Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman and Governor Christopher Waller, both overseen by the Federal Reserve, voted against the decision to keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged and instead supported lowering the rate by 25 basis points to prevent further weakening of the labor market.