US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Jerome Powell-led FOMC slashes rates by 25 bps to 4%-4.25%, flags ‘employment risks’

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: The US central bank's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), led by Chairman Jerome Powell announced a benchmark interest rate cut at 4%-4.25% today, following its two-day meeting from September 16 to September 17. This marks the first rate cut in 2025.

The announcement comes amid moderate growth of the economy in the first half of the year. Job gains have slowed, and the unemployment rate has edged up but remains low. Inflation has increased and remains somewhat elevated, Fed noted.

The Federal Reserve was anticipated to announce the principal interest rates amid a significant decline in United States economic data, particularly within the labour market, thereby increasing forecasts that the central bank will decrease its benchmark interest rate by 25 bps.

After the last FOMC meeting, Fed Chair Jerome Powell announced that the interest rates would remain unchanged at 4.25% to 4.5%. Notably, the Federal Reserve has held the interest rate steady for five consecutive meetings over the past nine months.

The rates have remained steady for some time now despite continued pressure from President Donald Trump, as the Fed adopted a wait-and-watch approach, while anticipating the impact of higher tariffs imposed on trading partners.

Catch all the latest updates here on the US Fed meeting LIVE here.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: According to the Fed's median projection, total PCE inflation is expected to be 3 per cent in 2025, falling to 2.6 per cent in 2026 and 2.1 per cent in 2027. As a result, the central bank does not anticipate its preferred inflation gauge reaching below its 2 per cent target in the next two years.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: The US Fed cut benchmark interest rates by 25 basis points to 4%-4.25% and stated that it will evaluate incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks to determine if further rate cuts are necessary.

The committee voted by an 11:1 majority to cut the base interest rate by 25 basis points. The only dissenting vote came from Stephen Miran, who preferred a 50 basis point reduction in the benchmark interest rates.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: US unemployment rose to 4.3% in August, up from 4.2% in July. 22,000 jobs were created in August, a sharp drop from 79,000 in July 2025. Additionally, the US economy created 9,11,000 fewer jobs in the 12 months to March than previously estimated.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: The dollar rebounded after reaching a 2025 low as the Federal Reserve reduced interest rates amid a weakening job market.

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2% after falling as much as 0.4% on Wednesday to its lowest point since March 2022. The index fluctuated between gains and losses as Fed Chair Jerome Powell stated that the risk of persistent inflation should be managed, while noting signs of a cooling labour market.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: “The Committee is strongly committed to supporting maximum employment and returning inflation to its 2 per cent objective,” FOMC said in its statement.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: “The Committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage‑backed securities,” Fed's policy statement read.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: The FOMC's post-meeting statement highlighted that inflation has “moved up and remains somewhat elevated,”

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Jerome Powell said that the Fed was "right to wait and see how tariffs and inflation and the labour market evolved" before lowering rates for the first time in this year.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Regarding the job market, Powell said, “Labour demand has softened, and the recent pace of job creation appears to be running below the break-even rate needed to hold the unemployment rate constant." He added, “I can no longer say” the labour market is “very solid.”

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Speaking on the importance of interest rates for the housing sector, Powell said, “ it is an interest-sensitive activity, so it's at the very centre of monetary policy. When the pandemic hit and we cut rates to zero, the housing companies were incredibly grateful, and they said that was the only thing that kept them going.”

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Regarding potential Fed reforms, Powell stated, "We're definitely open to constructive criticism and ways to do our job better."

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: US Treasuries fell after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s cautious comments dispelled hopes that the central bank was about to launch a series of aggressive interest rate cuts to boost the economy, reported news agency Bloomberg.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: The S&P 500 briefly increased while the Nasdaq declined in choppy trading on Wednesday, after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points, in line with expectations, Reuters reported.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: The FOMC economic projections show that the median participant expects US GDP to grow by 1.6 per cent this year, 1.8 per cent in 2026, and 1.9 per cent in 2027, slightly higher than projected in June.

Based on the June forecast, the US GDP was expected to grow by 1.4 per cent in 2025, 1.6 per cent in 2026, and 1.8 per cent in 2027.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: The FOMC hinted at more rate cuts by the end of the year. However, the central bank reaffirmed that it will evaluate incoming data and changing circumstances before implementing further rate reductions in the coming months.

"The median participant projects that the appropriate level of the federal funds rate will be 3.6 per cent at the end of this year, 3.4 per cent at the end of 2026, and 3.1 per cent at the end of 2027. This path is 1/4 percentage point (25 bps) lower than projected in June," Powell said.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Addressing inflation and employment, Jerome Powell said, "In the near term, risks to inflation are tilted to the upside and risks to employment to the downside, a challenging situation" for monetary policymakers. He said “labour demand has softened and the recent pace of job creation appears to be running below the break-even rate needed to hold the unemployment rate constant,”adding "the marked slowing in both the supply of and demand for workers is unusual."

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Amid concerns raised by US President Donald Trump over the legitimacy of jobs data, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the data the central bank gets from the Bureau of Labour Statistics remains “good enough to do our work”.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Powell said that there is “great uncertainty” over AI replacing jobs.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stated on Wednesday that some of the economy's more severe inflationary concerns have diminished.

"Really, since April, to me, the risks of higher and more persistent inflation have probably become a little less, and that's partly because the labour market has softened, GDP growth has slowed," Powell said at a press conference after the latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Jerome Powell highlighted Fed's freedom amid political pressure and said, “it's deeply in our culture to do to do our work based on the incoming data and and never consider anything else. That's just, everybody who's at the Fed really feels strongly about that way. So you know, you'll know it by the way we talk about what we're doing, by the speeches that people give, by the decisions that we make. You'll know that we're just still going to do that. That's all we do, and we don't. We don't frame these questions at all, or see them in terms of political outcomes.”

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Powell highlighted the impact of immigration on the labour market and said, “the labour market has more to do with immigration than it has to do with tariffs. So I wouldn't say that all of what's happening in the labour market is due to tariffs. I mean, you can clearly have a slowing in due to immigration. You clearly have a slowing in demand, which is now perhaps more than that in supply.”

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Speaking on the relation between tariffs and the labour market, Powell said, “You know, it's certainly possible. We're beginning to see, we have begun to see goods prices showing through into higher inflation.”

He added, “it's also possible and that there may be effects on unemployment, but that, I would say, if you're looking at why employment is doing what it's doing, that's much more about the change in immigration.”

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Jerome Powell said, “Changes to government policies continue to evolve, and their effects on the economy remain uncertain.”

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Speaking on the inflation data, Powell noted, “Inflation has eased significantly from its highs in mid 2022 but remains somewhat elevated relative to our 2% longer run goal estimates.”

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Powell said that tariff has increased the prices of goods in some sections.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Powell said, “wage growth has continued to moderate while still outpacing inflation overall. The market is slowing in both the supply of and demand for workers, which is unusual in this less dynamic and somewhat softer labour market. The downside risks to employment appear to have risen in our Sep median projection for the unemployment rate is 4.5%.”

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Powell highlighted that the moderation in growth largely reflects a slowdown in consumer spending.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Economic activity has moderated GDP growth, GDP rose at a pace of around one and a half percent in the first half of the year, down from 2.5%, says Jerome Powell.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Fed chair Jeorme Powell's speech starts.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's address is expected to begin shortly. The speech will stream on the Fed's official website and its YouTube channel.

Jerome Powell will start the press conference at 2:30 p.m. (EST). For Indians waiting for Powell's announcement, you can tune in to the official broadcast stream at 12:00 midnight (IST).

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Fed says that the downside risks to employment have increased.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Jerome Powell, John Williams, Michael Barr, Michelle Bowman, Susan Collins, Lisa D. Cook, Austan D Goolsbee, Philip N. Jefferson, Alberto G. Musalem, Jeffrey R. Schmid, and Christopher J. Waller voted for the 25 bps cut.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Stephen I. Miran, who recently took the oath of office as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, dissented to a 25 bps cut. He advocated for a 50 bps cut in interest rates.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Recent indicators suggest that economic growth slowed in the first half of the year, FOMC noted. Job gains have decelerated, and the unemployment rate has increased slightly but stays low. Inflation has risen and remains somewhat high.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: The FOMC seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 per cent over the longer run. Uncertainty about the economic outlook remains elevated.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Jerome Powell-led FOMC has decided to cut benchmark interest rates by 25bps to 4%-4.25% in its September 2025 policy meeting.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Jerome Powell-led FOMC has decided to cut benchmark interest rates in its September 2025 policy meeting.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: In a post on the Truth Social platform, US President Donald Trump asked the Fed to cut the benchmark interest rates

“Just out: No Inflation!!! “Too Late” must lower the RATE, BIG, right now. Powell is a total disaster, who doesn’t have a clue!!!” Trump wrote on September 10.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: In December 2024, the FOMC slashed the benchmark interest rates by 25 basis points at 4.25% to 4.50%.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: When central banks cut interest rates outside of recessions, it typically boosts risk assets—equities increase, bond investors benefit from securing yields, and the dollar often loses value, according to a report by JP Morgan Private Bank.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: FOMC is expected to release the policy decision at 11:30 p.m. (IST).

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: In FOMC's last meeting, the US Federal Reserve decided to keep the key benchmark interest rates steady at 4.25% to 4.5%.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Jerome Powell will start the press conference at 2:30 p.m. (EST). For Indians waiting for Powell's announcement, you can tune in to the official broadcast stream at 12:00 midnight (IST) after the FOMC releases the policy decision at 11:30 p.m. (IST).

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Powell earlier hinted that future policy decisions would depend on the state of the labour market. Recent data, however, has shown a decline in the labour market, with hiring slowing, unemployment claims increasing, and the unemployment rate rising. This is a key reason why investors expect the central bank to cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Prices of copper reached a one-week low on Wednesday as traders reduced their positions ahead of the Federal Reserve's decision on US interest rates, while demand from China, the world's top metals consumer, was subdued by the recent rally in copper prices, reported Reuters.

The three-month copper prices on the London Metal Exchange dropped 1.3% to $9,999 a metric ton by 1600 GMT, remaining above the 21-day moving average, which supports it at $9,912.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: US unemployment rose to 4.3% in August, up from 4.2% in July. Job growth in the US fell to 22,000 in August, a significant drop from 79,000 in July 2025. The US economy had created 9,11,000 fewer jobs in the 12 months through March, much lower than expected.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: The US Federal Reserve's September 2025 policy decision is likely to be influenced by a weakening labour market and inflation rates.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: Jerome Powell, in his Jackson Hole speech, emphasised that higher tariffs have begun to increase the prices of some goods. While the impact of tariffs will build over the coming months, Powell noted that there is considerable uncertainty about whether these price increases will substantially elevate the risk of a persistent inflation problem.

US Fed Meeting 2025 LIVE: The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) comprises twelve members: the seven members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and four of the remaining eleven Reserve Bank presidents, who serve one-year terms on a rotating basis.

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