November FOMC: Still on track for a December rate hike

As broadly expected, the Federal Reserve maintained its target range for the fed funds rate at 1.00-1.25% in a unanimous decision. The new Vice Chair for supervision, Randal Quarles, attended his first FOMC policy meeting, and cast his vote with the majority for no change in policy. According to the FOMC post-meeting statement, the balance sheet normalization program that was initiated at the September meeting and began in October “is proceeding”. The meeting did not provide any new clues regarding the short-term policy outlook. In line with other mid-quarter FOMC policy meetings, it was not accompanied by a press conference by the Chair of the Committee and an update of economic and fed funds rate projections.