Fed Chair Walsh: FOMC to reduce rate votes from 2025, two fewer by 2028
Federal Reserve Chair Walsh announced that from autumn 2025, one of the eight annual FOMC meetings will no longer vote on the policy rate or issue a statement. By 2028, two meetings will be dedicated to strategic discussions, with the remaining six for regular policy decisions.
Federal Reserve Chair Walsh has said the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will adjust its meeting schedule starting from autumn 2025, reducing the number of meetings that vote on the policy interest rate.
Speaking on 29 October, Walsh explained that holding eight FOMC meetings per year remains appropriate. However, from next year, one of those meetings will no longer involve a vote on the policy rate and will not issue a post-meeting statement. Instead, that session will focus on broader macroeconomic monetary-policy strategy. The remaining meetings will continue as regular policy-setting gatherings.
Walsh projected that by 2028, two meetings each year will be set aside for strategic discussions, leaving six meetings for routine policy decisions.
“To set the right policy, we need timely, regular assessments of recent developments and ensure those assessments are based on sufficient information,” Walsh said. “We also need to reserve time and space to discuss longer-term, significant issues.”
In addition, Walsh noted that recommendations from the balance-sheet working group could be submitted to the FOMC for discussion as early as the first quarter of 2025.