Fed Meeting Live Updates: Interest Rates Remain Steady

The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, as the central bank turned cautious on further cuts amid a sturdy economy and uncertainty about inflation.

The central bank’s decision to pause at its first meeting of 2025 followed a series of cuts that began in September to account for progress already made on getting inflation down.

Over the course of three meetings, the Fed lowered rates by a full percentage point to a range of 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent, which was maintained on Wednesday.

In a statement released alongside the decision, the Fed described the labor market as “solid,” noting that the unemployment rate had “stabilized at a low level.”

Inflation concerns continued to dominate, however, with the Fed scrapping earlier guidance about the progress made in achieving the central bank’s 2 percent inflation goal. Rather, it said that inflation remained “somewhat elevated.”

Officials at the Fed are trying to strike the right balance between ensuring that high inflation is fully vanquished after the worst shock in decades while also safeguarding the labor market from weakening excessively. Lowering interest rates too slowly risks jeopardizing jobs, whereas lowering interest rates too quickly risks inflation getting stuck above the Fed’s 2 percent goal.