01 Nov 2023

For a second consecutive meeting, the US Federal Reserve’s policy committee held its benchmark interest rate at a 22-year high and held out the possibility of further hikes if inflation pressures fail to ease. After 11 increases since March 2022, the target range for the federal funds rate was maintained between 5.25 and 5.5 percent. In a largely-unchanged statement, officials acknowledged an acceleration in growth, upgrading the economic expansion from “solid” to “strong”. Language which previously noted job creation had “slowed” was revised to say it had “moderated”. Policymakers retained optionality to deliver another hike, preserving a sentence that referred...