US Fed cuts interest rates by quarter of a percentage point

The Fed will have to navigate a changing economic landscape with the election of Donald Trump as the next US president.

The United States Federal Reserve has cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point as policymakers took note of a job market that has “generally eased” while inflation continues to move towards the central bank’s 2 percent target.

“Economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace,” the central bank’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee said on Thursday. The statement followed a two-day policy meeting in which officials lowered the benchmark overnight interest rate to the 4.5 percent to 4.75 percent range, as widely expected. The decision was unanimous.

But where the Fed’s previous policy statement noted slowing monthly job gains, the new one referred to the labour market more broadly.

Even while the unemployment rate remains low, “labour market conditions have generally eased,” the statement said.

Risks to the job market and inflation were “roughly in balance”, the Fed said, repeating language from the statement released after its September meeting.