Fed Holds Rates Steady in First FOMC Under Chair Warsh; Fourth Freeze This Year

The U.S. Federal Reserve has kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.50% to 3.75%.

The Fed announced that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) reached a unanimous decision to maintain the current rate at the conclusion of its regular meeting on June 17 (local time).

This marks the fourth time the Fed has frozen interest rates this year.

The Fed had previously cut rates by 0.25 percentage points for three consecutive meetings in September, October, and December of last year, but has held them steady throughout January, March, and April of this year.

With this decision, the interest rate gap between South Korea (2.50%) and the United States remains at 1.25 percentage points at the upper bound.

This FOMC meeting was the first to be held since Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh took office last month.

Amid persistent pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to cut interest rates, market attention has been focused on the direction of monetary policy under Chair Warsh.

Chair Warsh was previously classified as a hawkish figure favoring monetary tightening, but has been assessed as shifting toward a dovish stance favoring monetary easing since last year.

In his inaugural remarks, he emphasized both the need to protect the independence of the Federal Reserve and the necessity for reform.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.