FOMC discusses eventual interest rate hike

The Federal Open Markets Committee concluded its two-day session Sept. 17 and issued projections pointing to the eventual and inevitable normalization of interest rates.

The FOMC officially stayed the course it has been following, stating that it would continue to taper its bond purchases by another $10 billion, remaining on course to end the quantitative easing program in October, and that it would continue to suppress the federal funds rate at a level between zero and 0.25 percent for a “considerable time” after QE. However, the FOMC also issued its updated federal funds rate “dot-plot”, which now includes the year 2017 and has a median projection for the federal funds rate by the end of that year of 3.75 percent — a rate matching the FOMC’s l