Federal Reserve Cuts Interest Rates by 25 Basis-point In 1st Meeting after Trump's Victory

The Federal Reserve's monetary policy committee decided to cut interest rates by 25 basis points to 4.50%-4.75%, half the size of the cut made last September.

This is the second interest rate cut in 2024, after a 50 basis point cut during the September meeting.

This comes in the first meeting after Donald Trump was declared the winner of the US presidential election against Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

The Fed stated that the risks to the employment and inflation goals are "roughly balanced", and that inflation "has made progress" towards 2% but remains somewhat high.

It indicated that labor market conditions "have improved overall", explaining that economic activity continued to expand at a steady pace.

Experts indicate that the Federal Reserve's cut of interest rates by 0.25 percentage points today, Thursday, is a move that will provide some relief to consumers, although the initial benefit will be small.