US Federal Reserve
For its final meeting in 2023, the US Federal Reserve decided to maintain its benchmark rate in the range of 5.25% to 5.5%, its highest level in 22 years. This should come as a welcome relief to investors who were worried that the US central bank will continue to raise interest rates to tame inflation. In addition, officials also signalled that interest rates will be cut by a total of 0.75% in 2024. This was 0.25 percentage points higher than what the Federal Reserve had communicated back in September when it said that interest rates would be cut by 0.5%. With each reduction being 0.25%, the latest news implies that there will be three rate cuts next year. These projections came about because the central bank now expects inflation to fall to 2.4% in 2024, down slightly from its original assessment of 2.5%. Officials also expect inflation to fall further to 2.2% by 2025. This meeting...Welcome to this week’s edition of top stock market highlights.
