United States Adjusts Monetary Policy

Amid financial market uncertainty, the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) decided to cut its target interest rate by 50 basis points, bringing it to a range between 4.75 and 5.00 percent.

This decision marks the first rate cut since March 2020 and comes ahead of the U.S. presidential election. In this context, the Mexican peso depreciated by 0.81 percent against the dollar in wholesale transactions, closing at 19.2841.

Additionally, the U.S. central bank announced plans to end the year with another half-percentage point cut, according to a statement.

The Fed also noted it has "greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward (its goal of) 2 percent."

It is worth mentioning that the decision was not unanimous, as Governor Michelle Bowman voted for a smaller cut of 25 basis points.

Regarding inflation, the Fed revised its forecast downward to 2.3 percent by the end of this year and to 2.1 percent by 2025.

Thus, the 2 percent inflation target, considered healthy for the economy, is expected to be reached in 2026 in this scenario.

However, the U.S. central bank raised its unemployment forecast to 4.4 percent for 2024 and the following year.

The Fed also expects the GDP of the world's largest economy to grow by 2.0 percent in 2024, slightly down from its previous estimate of 2.1 percent.

In a press conference following the Fed's Monetary Committee statement, central bank Chairman Jerome Powell said, "Our economy is generally strong and has made significant progress toward our goals over the past two years."

With information from AFP

Contenido publicado originalmente en El Heraldo de México.