The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday cut interest rates by a quarter-percentage point as expected, but Chair Jerome Powell said the path forward is “not a foregone conclusion — far from it.”
For only the second time since 2013, voting members of the central bank wanted to take rates in opposite directions, with Donald Trump appointee Stephen Miran voting for a steeper cut and Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid voting to hold rates steady.
Rising inflation and unemployment, as the US now faces, is an unusual economic combination that calls for opposite moves in interest rates. Powell suggested a December rate cut was not guaranteed, given the “strongly differing views” and lack of official jobs numbers during the ongoing government shutdown.