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The US Federal Reserve voted on September 20 to keep interest rates at their highest level in 22 years, but said it was ready to raise rates further if appropriate.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell at a press conference announcing no interest rate hike in Washington, September 20
In a press conference after the vote, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the agency was ready to raise interest rates higher than current levels if appropriate. After 11 interest rate increases since March last year, inflation in the US has fallen sharply but is still not at the target of 2% / year.
The Fed's decision to keep its key interest rate unchanged at 5.25 to 5.50 percent gives policymakers more time to assess the US economy, amid signs of growth and a recovering labor market.
According to AFP, the Fed's move on September 20 was in line with market expectations, avoiding further pressure on millions of Americans who are already struggling with the impact of current interest rate hikes on mortgages and other loans.
The Fed said economic activity is expanding at a solid pace and unemployment remains low.
Policymakers are seeking to move the United States in what Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, calls the “ideal path.”
Specifically, curbing inflation while preventing rising unemployment and the possibility of economic recession.
Recent economic data has been quite positive, raising expectations that the Fed's rate hikes will slow without triggering a severe recession.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) said it believes the US economy will perform much better than expected. It forecasts interest rates will be between 5.50% and 5.75% by the end of the year, with the possibility of another quarter-point hike before the end of the year.
At the same time, the FOMC forecasts interest rates will rise another half a percentage point next year, indicating a slower pace of rate cuts than expected.
The FOMC also more than doubled its forecast for economic growth this year, from 1% in June to 2.1%.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs have cut their forecast for a US recession from 20% to 15%.
Meanwhile, other economists — including those on the Fed's research team — say they no longer expect the US economy to shrink this year.
According to Tuoi Tre