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Powell: Federal Reserve is on track to cut rates, though not likely for months

File - Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell appears on a video monitor on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York on July 26, 2023. Most analysts expect the central bank will leave its benchmark rate alone when the Federal Reserve wraps up a two-day rate policy meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
File - Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell appears on a video monitor on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York on July 26, 2023. Most analysts expect the central bank will leave its benchmark rate alone when the Federal Reserve wraps up a two-day rate policy meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER / AP Economics Writer 6 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) — Interest rate cuts are coming. Just not yet.

The Federal Reserve delivered that message Wednesday, first in a policy statement and then in a news conference at which Chair Jerome Powell reinforced it.

The Fed did signal that it’s nearing a long-awaited shift toward cutting rates, evidence that its officials have grown confident that they’re close to fully taming inflation. No longer does its policy statement say it’s still considering further rate hikes.

Yet the officials made clear that the first rate cut is likely months away. Their statement said they don’t think it would be time to cut rates “until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably” to their 2% target.

Investors and some economists had been holding out the possibility that the Fed might cut as early as its next meeting in March. That now appears off the table.