by Paul-Martin Foss
Mises.org
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided yesterday to leave the target federal funds rate at between 0.25 and 0.50 percent. This was widely expected, given the dismal jobs report that was published two weeks ago and the uncertainty in the banking sector surrounding the UK’s upcoming Brexit vote. Some FOMC participants had in recent weeksexpressed uncertainty about raising rates because of the potential for instability in the banking sector if the UK votes to leave the European Union.
Language in this month’s FOMC statement was largely unchanged from April. The main changes in emphasis were that the FOMC appears to be more downbeat about job gains, stating that the “pace of improvement in the labor market has slowed”, although the Committee continues to believe that “labor market indicators will strengthen.” Additionally, the Committee claimed that household spending has strengthened, but it flagged business fixed investment as soft. References to strong job gains from the April statement were removed in the June statement.