Data Source: Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) • Last Updated: 2026-08-22
-0.25%pFOMC decision, December 2025
0–2%: accommodative 2–4%: neutral Above 4%: restrictive
Low: 0.25%
The federal funds rate is the rate at which banks lend to one another overnight, and the Federal Reserve's primary monetary-policy tool. The FOMC sets it across eight meetings a year.
The federal funds rate is the overnight interest rate at which U.S. banks lend reserve balances to one another, and it serves as the benchmark policy rate for the United States. Its target range is set by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Federal Reserve's policymaking body, which holds eight scheduled meetings per year. This rate is the starting point that influences deposit and lending rates, bond yields, and mortgage rates across the economy. The post-meeting statement and the quarterly Summary of Economic Projections, including the dot plot, are watched as closely as the decision itself.
The Fed adjusts the rate in pursuit of its dual mandate: price stability, defined as 2% inflation, and maximum employment. When inflation runs above target the Fed typically raises rates to cool demand, and when the economy weakens it cuts rates to provide support. A common framework compares the current rate with the neutral rate, the level that neither stimulates nor restrains the economy, to judge whether policy is restrictive or accommodative. Turning points in the hiking or cutting cycle often matter more to markets than the absolute level of the rate.
Rate-hiking cycles tend to lift bond yields and compress valuations of growth stocks, while cutting cycles are generally read as supportive for risk assets through easier liquidity. The reason behind a cut matters, however: easing driven by recession fears can coincide with falling equity markets. Markets often react more to changes in the statement language, the dot plot, and the chair's press conference than to the decision itself, since these shape the expected future path. Futures-implied probabilities such as CME FedWatch and the 2-year Treasury yield are useful cross-checks on market rate expectations.