Federal Reserve Rate Decision: Check Time, Announcement, Expectations From Jerome Powell’s Press Conference

The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to announce its first interest rate cut of 2025 on September 17 with several participants aiming a quarter percentage point (25 basis points) reduction, bringing the federal funds rate to a range of about 4.00 per cent to 4.25 per cent.

This would be the first cut since December 2024 and reflects concerns over a weakening labor market, signs of slower job growth, and some inflationary pressures from tariffs. This rate cut is seen as a move to support the struggling labor market amid ongoing economic uncertainties.

What Time Will Fed Rate Announcement Take Place?  

The Federal Reserve's interest rate decision announcement is scheduled to be released today, September 17, around 11:30 pm Indian Standard Time (IST). The announcement will be inclusive of rate decision and the Fed’s updated Summary of Economic Projections, which underline the outlook for growth, inflation, and unemployment. Following the announcement, Fed Chair Jerome Powell is expected to hold a press conference to discuss the decision and respond to media queries.

The most politically charged U.S. Federal Reserve meeting in years wraps up on Wednesday with broad expectations for a quarter-percentage-point interest rate cut that may spark dissents from some policymakers who feel it is too small and too late and others who feel it is not warranted at all, as per Reuters report. 

Just as critical as that decision will be an updated slate of projections showing where policymakers see the economy and monetary policy heading eight months into President Donald Trump's extensive rewrite of U.S. economic policy and unrelenting pressure on the central bank to lower borrowing costs.

One all-but-certain critic of the outcome will be Trump himself, who wants rates slashed by far more than would typically be warranted in a still-healthy economy. It will also come as the president's imprint on the central bank begins to take shape.

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Governor Stephen Miran, on leave as the chair of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers, was sworn in as a member of the Fed's seven-member board on Tuesday as the meeting was set to convene, while the administration also said it would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to allow its effort to fire Governor Lisa Cook to proceed.

Trump has tried to pressure Fed Chair Jerome Powell to resign in a bid to win lower rates, then last month turned his focus to Cook and said he was firing her over allegations she misrepresented information on a mortgage application.

A quarter-point cut has been the prevailing expectation for weeks after readings of the job market turned decidedly soft as the summer progressed.

But after a July meeting that already produced two dissents from Trump-appointed governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, both advocating for a rate cut then, this week's meeting could see even more disagreement.

Most analysts expect a dissent right out of the gate from Miran in favor of a larger cut, perhaps joined by Waller and Bowman, while at least one of the voting Reserve Bank presidents - Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid - had not retreated from his hawkish posture as the meeting approached.