What date is the next Fed meeting in September? Will they raise interest rates again?
The Federal Reserve’s FOMC will meet later this month to discuss a possible interest rate hike. When will the meeting take place?
The Federal Open Market Committee of the US Federal Reserve will meet on 20 September to discuss any changes to interest rates. The current Federal Funds Rate (FFR), which is the baseline interest rate in the US, stands at 5.33 percent. The last rate increase came at the end of July when officials opted for a 0.25 percent bump. At the July meeting, the FOMC reported that most committee members expected the “July rate hike would be the last of this tightening cycle.”
In late August, at an economic policy symposium in Jacksole Hole, Wyoming, rate increases were put back on the table by Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
“We are prepared to raise rates further if appropriate and intend to hold policy at a restrictive level until we are confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward our objective,” said Chair Powell. The Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) index used by the Federal Reserve and the CPI tracked slowdowns in price growth in June and July. However, Fed Chair Jerome Powell stated that for FOMC members, “two months of good data are only the beginning of what it will take to build confidence that inflation is moving down sustainably toward our goal.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported earlier this week that average prices, according to the Consumer Price Index, rose 0.6 percent from July to August.
This most recent report from the BLS is one sign that the trends seen earlier in the summer may not stick, which could prompt more aggressive action from the Fed. The PCE data for August will not be available until after the FOMC meeting, which could mean that members will delay any additional rate hikes until October.
Inflation continues to cut into purchasing power
A new round of rate hikes could come as the federal government reports that the rate of child poverty in the US doubled in 2022, partly because of the impact of inflation on purchasing power. While the Fed is not as concerned with price functions in energy and food markets, and while price growth has slowed in these sectors, they are still rising. The average personal savings rate in the US dropped to 3.5 percent in July from 4.3 percent in February, another sign that households are seeing their disposable incomes fall as they continue to face higher prices across good markets.