According to the last minute development, the FED left interest rates constant. The expectation was that interest rates would be kept constant.
Following the interest rate decision, Bitcoin price reacted as follows:
The FOMC statement has been substantially revised.
The tightening trend is gone, but it’s done in a way that suggests a rate cut isn’t necessarily imminent. The following statement was included in the text:
“The committee does not consider it appropriate to ‘cut rates’ until we gain greater confidence that inflation is sustainably moving towards 2%.”
In December, the FED stated that it expected three interest rate cuts in 2024, thanks to the slowdown in inflation; Some Wall Street economists predict that the institution may cut as many as five interest rates throughout the year.
While the economy remains strong in the United States, there is evidence that the labor market is weakening. On Wednesday, the U.S. Labor Department announced that workers’ wages and benefits rose at the slowest pace in two and a half years in the fourth quarter. Oxford Economics analysts said in a research report that this was “news that will be welcomed by the Fed, which wraps up its two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting today.”
FED President Jerome Powell will hold a press conference in half an hour (22:30 UTC) to discuss the FOMC’s interest rate decision and provide information about the FED’s general outlook.
The first inflation report of 2024 in the US will be published on February 13, when data on January prices will be released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
While economists expect inflation to continue falling in 2024, Oxford Economics predicts that prices will increase by 2.4% annually this year and decline to 2.2% in 2025.
*This is not investment advice.
