US federal reserve reduces key interest for the first time this year / Who voted against

The US Federal Reserve (FED) reduced the monetary policy interest on Wednesday by a quarter percentage point and indicated that it will continue to gradually relax the lending conditions in the rest of the year, against the backdrop of slowing down the labor market. The decision was supported by most of the officials appointed by President Donald Trump, the only opposition coming from the new governor Stephen Miran, who wanted a bigger discount, reports Reuters and News.ro.

Miran, who joined the FED on Tuesday and is on leave as head of the Economic Council of the White House, has requested a more aggressive discount of 0.5 percentage points.

The new decision moves the range of monetary policy interest to 4.00%-4.25%. At the same time, the projections published on Wednesday show that Fed anticipates two more discounts of 0.25 percentage points, at the remaining sessions in 2025.

The interest rate in the US had not been modified since December 2024, FED officials being worried about the effects of customs duties on the economy and inflation this year.

“The Committee (Fed Monetary Policy, no) is attentive to the risks of both objectives of his mandate and considers that the negative risks for employment have increased. The creation of jobs has slowed, and the unemployment rate has climbed,” the Fed statement said.

Fed President Jerome Powell will hold a conference to detail the decision and the new forecasts.

Updated projections

According to the updated projections, the inflation rate would remain at 3% at the end of the year, over the 2% target, an unchanged level from the June estimates.

The unemployment forecast was kept at 4.5%, and the one for economic growth was slightly high, to 1.6%, compared to 1.4%anterior.

The new estimates show that the risks of interference have been reduced, Fed officials relying on the fact that a faster relaxation of monetary policy can counteract unemployment increase, while inflation gradually decreases next year.

More and more officials have adopted the idea that Trump's rates will only have a temporary impact on inflation. Supporters of the new approaches were also the governor of Christopher Waller and the vice -president for Michelle Bowman, who in July had voted against maintaining the unchanged interest.

However, Stephen Miran remained in a more radical position: he anticipated for the end of 2025 an interest of 2.875%, with 0.75 percentage points under the next lowest estimate.

In favor of the decision, the governor Lisa Cook also voted, present at the meeting despite Trump's attempt to dismiss it, rejected by two federal courts.