Federal Reserve officials suggest that they are prepared for interest rate cuts as the FOMC meeting approaches in two weeks.

September 8, 2024, 8:27 AM GMT+9 (excerpt)

On the 6th, policy officials of the Federal Reserve (FED) pointed out that if there is no policy shift, the cooling of the labor market risks becoming even more serious, and they suggested that they are prepared to begin a series of interest rate cuts at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in two weeks.
This statement supports a decrease of 0.25 percentage points and is seen as leaving the possibility of taking bigger action if the labor market continues to slow down.
Policy authorities have maintained the policy interest rate in the range of 5.25-5.50% since July 2023, after implementing aggressive rate hikes 1.5 years ago to curb accelerating inflation.

The current inflation rate has significantly declined from around 7% in the mid-2022 peak. The unemployment rate, which was at 3.5% when the FED paused rate hikes, has now risen to 4.2%, and the monthly employment growth has been slowing down.
Officials at the Federal Reserve are changing the direction of monetary policy, shifting the focus from solely curbing inflation to supporting employment.