At its meeting today, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) unanimously voted to hold the target range for the federal funds rate steady at 1.5 to 1.75 percent. The committee most recently raised rates by 25 basis points in their March meeting. Fed officials are split between three or four hikes in 2018, and markets widely expect the next increase to occur in the FOMC’s next meeting, scheduled in June.
Committee members expect “that, with further gradual adjustments in the stance of monetary policy, economic activity will expand at a moderate pace and labor market conditions will remain strong.”
Committee members acknowledged that both inflation and core PCE (personal consumption expenditures) are now in range of the 2% target. The committee said it expects inflation “to run near the Committee’s symmetric 2 percent objective” over the next few months.
