US monetary policy
Current FOMC target range
3.50%–3.75%
Effective from 11 December 2025 — a cut of 0.25 percentage points from 3.75%–4.00%.
The effective rate — what banks actually transacted at — was 3.63% on 21 July 2026.
Source: FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis · updated automatically
The federal funds rate is the interest rate at which US banks lend their reserve balances to each other overnight. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)doesn't set it by decree — it sets a target range and then uses its policy tools to keep the actual, market-determined rate inside that band. That's why two numbers appear above: the range the Fed is aiming for, and the effective rate that resulted.
The FOMC meets eight times a year. Unlike the Bank of England, which targets inflation alone, the Fed has a dual mandate: maximum employment and stable prices, with a 2% inflation goal. Those two aims can pull in opposite directions, which is a large part of why Fed decisions are so closely watched — and so hard to anticipate.
The Fed has published a range rather than a single number since December 2008, when rates were cut to near zero during the financial crisis.
This is not only a US number. The federal funds rate is the anchor for the discount rate applied to future cash flows in the world's largest equity market — so it helps price the US shares and ETFs held in portfolios far outside America.
| Date effective | Target range | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 11 December 2025 | 3.50%–3.75% | -0.25 |
| 30 October 2025 | 3.75%–4.00% | -0.25 |
| 18 September 2025 | 4.00%–4.25% | -0.25 |
| 19 December 2024 | 4.25%–4.50% | -0.25 |
| 8 November 2024 | 4.50%–4.75% | -0.25 |
| 19 September 2024 | 4.75%–5.00% | -0.5 |
| 27 July 2023 | 5.25%–5.50% | +0.25 |
| 4 May 2023 | 5.00%–5.25% | +0.25 |
| 23 March 2023 | 4.75%–5.00% | +0.25 |
| 2 February 2023 | 4.50%–4.75% | +0.25 |
| 15 December 2022 | 4.25%–4.50% | +0.5 |
| 3 November 2022 | 3.75%–4.00% | +0.75 |
Showing the 12 most recent of 32 target-range changes on record, going back to 16 December 2008.
This page reports the rate. These lessons explain the mechanism — why it moves, and how it reaches your portfolio.
The rates shown are the official target range and effective rate published by the Federal Reserve, updated automatically. We report what the rate is— we don't forecast where it's going, and nothing here is financial advice. For decisions about your mortgage, savings or investments, consider professional advice.