National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) Chief Economist Curt Long issued the following statement in response to the Federal Open Market Committee’s announcement of no change in interest rates after the conclusion of its two-day meeting today.
“The tone of the statement was largely positive,” said Long. “The assessments of the economy in general and the labor market in particular were more upbeat, and the committee deemed that risks had diminished. Nevertheless, there was no indication that the committee anticipates that inflation will pick up in the near term, which leaves them enough slack to maintain a cautious approach to normalizing rates.”
The committee will meet for another two-day policy-setting session Sept. 20-21.
The FOMC raised the federal funds target rate to a range of 0.25 to 0.5 percent in December 2015.