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Fed Funds Rate History: 1954 – Now

Fed Reserve rate increases including historical data, how this year compares to previous years and meeting calendar — updated periodically.

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Richard Laycock
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0.5%

Fed rate increase

to 4.25% to 4.50% on Wednesday, December 14, 2022

The Fed funds rate has risen seven times in 2022 and is currently 3.83% and there is one more meetings to come this year.

The latest Fed Funds data at a glance

  1. Current Fed Rate: 4.25% to 4.50% following the December 14, 2022 meeting(1)
  2. Last change: Increased 0.5% on December 14, 2022(1)
  3. Rate this time last year: Held at 0% to 0.25%, December 15, 2021(1)
  4. Next meeting: January 31 – February 1, 2023(2)
  5. Highest rate since 1954: A monthly average of 19.1% was recorded in June, 1981(3)
  6. Lowest rate since 1954: A monthly average of 0.05% was recorded in April, 2020(3)

Changes to the Fed funds rate in 2022

The Fed hiked rates by 50 basis points and set the federal funds target rate range between 4.25% to 4.50% following the December 14, 2022, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. Prior to the December increase of 0.5%, the Fed made four consecutive increases of 75 basis points in 2022, following increases of 50 basis points in May and 25 basis points in March of 2022.

In 2022, the Fed has raised rates seven times, which is the highest number of Fed rate hikes in a single year since 2005. However, while 2005 saw more Fed rate hikes in total (8), the individual increases were of just 25 basis points. Whereas the changes in 2022 have ranged from 25 to 75 basis points.

Last five years of changes to the Fed rate

Since 2018 the average Fed funds rate is 1.1%, roughly three times lower than it is today. However, during this period the US saw historically low rates, in part due to COVID, with rates hitting a record low of 0.05% for the months of April and May 2020.

Looking back on the history of Fed Funds changes

While it’s not a great sign that the Fed rate is on its way up, currently at 3.83, it is actually below the average rate since 1954, which is 4.6.

Previous FOMC 2022 meetings

There are no meetings left on the FOMC calendar for 2022.

2023 FOMC Meetings

Looking further ahead, these are the meetings scheduled for 2023.

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