Economic growth accelerated to a 4.9% seasonally adjusted annual rate in the third quarter of this year, up from 2.1% the quarter before, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday morning.
After more than a year of successive interest rate hikes, some by very aggressive margins, the Fed decided to pause its rate hiking at its last meeting. But despite forgoing another rate revision, the Fed's target rate is still the highest it has been since the dot-com bubble at 5.25% to 5.50%.While the Fed has paused, it is unclear whether the central bank will raise rates again before its tightening cycle concludes.
While inflation has largely been in decline since June 2022, the past few months have shown annual price growth remaining uncomfortably hot, raising expectations that interest rates won’t start to be cut anytime soon.