Federal Reserve Leaves Interest Rates Unchanged; Still Plans Three Rate Cuts in 2024

At the conclusion of its meeting on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve announced it was holding interest rates steady and made no changes to its forecast that it will be necessary to cut rates three times in 2024, Yahoo Finance reported (3-20-24).

The central bank’s benchmark interest rate remained in a range of 5.25–5.50%, the highest since 2001.

While maintaining forecasts the Fed would need to lower this rate by 0.75% by the end of this year, the Fed’s policy announcement said the central bank does “not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%.”