Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh has continued to uphold an official, minimalist communication style. The main text of the October rate decision statement remains concise, and compared with the September statement, the main adjustments are concentrated in the assessment of economic growth, the policy linkage to the inflation target, and the voting divisions within the committee.
On Wednesday, October 28 local time, the Federal Reserve announced that it would keep the target range for the federal funds rate unchanged at 3.75% to 4.00%. In this statement, the Fed upgraded its assessment of U.S. economic activity from "solid" to "strong," but its judgments on aspects such as inflation remaining elevated and employment growth keeping pace with labor supply were unchanged.
At the same time, the Fed removed the September statement's wording that the policy action at that time would help inflation return to the 2% target in a more timely manner, and instead emphasized the need to accumulate more information to determine the appropriate policy stance.
The main changes in this statement include:
Voting result: Unlike the unanimous 12-0 approval at the September meeting, this decision to keep rates unchanged was approved by a 10-2 vote. Two committee members, Lisa D. Cook and Beth M. Hammack, favored raising rates by 25 basis points at this meeting.
Rate decision: The wording was adjusted from September's "raise the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 3.75% to 4.00%" to "maintain the target range at 3.75% to 4.00%," reflecting this meeting's pause in rate hikes.
Assessment of economic activity: This statement upgraded the pace of economic activity expansion from "solid" to "strong." The wording on geopolitical uncertainty, the resilience of domestic spending, productivity growth, capital investment, and employment and the unemployment rate was all unchanged.
Inflation wording and policy linkage: The Fed continued to say that inflation remains elevated, but removed the September statement's line that "today's policy action will help achieve the committee's 2% objective in a more timely manner," replacing it with an emphasis that accumulating more information will help the committee determine the appropriate policy stance to ensure inflation returns to the 2% objective in a timely manner. The statement still reaffirmed that the Fed will achieve price stability.
Full statement translation
The full statement is translated as follows. Black text indicates parts identical to the September 2026 FOMC meeting statement, red text indicates newly added parts in October 2026, and blue text in parentheses indicates wording deleted from the September statement (please indicate the source when reprinting):
The Federal Open Market Committee approved the release of the following statement by a 10-2 (12-0) vote.
The committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.75% to 4.00% (raise the target range by 25 basis points to 3.75% to 4.00%) to support the Federal Reserve's dual mandate. The committee will continue its policy of maintaining sufficient reserves in the banking system.
Economic activity is expanding at a strong (solid) pace. Although uncertainty remains elevated due to factors such as geopolitical developments, domestic spending has remained resilient. Productivity growth is strong, and capital investment has performed solidly. Employment growth has kept pace with labor supply, and the unemployment rate has changed little.
Inflation remains elevated. The accumulation of more information will help the committee determine the appropriate policy stance to ensure that inflation returns to the committee's 2% objective in a timely manner (today's policy action will help achieve the committee's 2% objective in a more timely manner). The committee will achieve price stability.
Voting against this monetary policy action were Lisa D. Cook and Beth M. Hammack, who preferred to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points at this meeting (the September statement had no dissenting votes).
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