The FOMC announced two consecutive rate cuts and issued a statement urging caution.

(New York = Yonhap News) Correspondent Lee Ji-heon = Jerome Powell, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed), said on the 29th (local time) that"it is not a foregone conclusion that the base interest rate will be further lowered at the December meeting."

Chairman Powell said this in a press conference after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) held its meeting that day and decided to lower the benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to a range of 3.75% to 4.00%, saying,"There was a strong difference of opinion among the members at today's meeting" regarding the future direction of policy.

Regarding the financial market's expectation of a Fed rate cut in December, he reiterated,"An additional cut in December is not a foregone conclusion," and added,"I would say that should be accepted."

The Federal Reserve announced that it had decided to lower the benchmark interest rate from 4.00-4.25% to 3.75-4.00% at the FOMC meeting held today.

Two committee members dissented from the decision. Federal Reserve Board Governor Stephen Myron, known as"Trump's economic strategist," advocated for a "big cut" (a 0.5 percentage point cut), as he did in the previous meeting, while Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Jeffrey Schmid advocated for a rate freeze.