鲍威尔主席记者招待会记录（英）

September 17, 2025 Chair Powell’s Press Conference FINAL Page 1 of 26 Transcript of Chair Powell’s Press Conference September 17, 2025 CHAIR POWELL. Good afternoon. My colleagues and I remain squarely focused on achieving our dual-mandate goals of maximum employment and stable prices for the benefit of the American people. While the unemployment rate remains low, it has edged up, job gains have slowed, and downside risks to employment have risen. At the same time, inflation has risen recently and remains somewhat elevated. In support of our goals, and in light of the shift in the balance of risks, today the Federal Open Market Committee decided to lower our policy interest rate by ¼ percentage point. We also decided to continue to reduce our securities holdings. I’ll have more to say about monetary policy after briefly reviewing economic developments. Recent indicators suggest that growth of economic activity has moderated. GDP rose at a pace of around 1½ percent in the first half of the year, down from 2.5 percent last year. The moderation in growth largely reflects a slowdown in consumer spending. In contrast, business investment in equipment and intangibles has picked up from last year’s pace. Activity in the housing sector remains weak. In our Summary of Economic Projections, the median participant projects GDP to rise 1.6 percent this year and 1.8 percent next year, a touch stronger than projected in June. In the labor market, the unemployment rate edged up to 4.3 percent in August but remains little changed over the past year at a relatively low level. Payroll job gains have slowed significantly to a pace of just 29,000 per month over the past three months. A good part of the slowing likely reflects a decline in the growth of the labor force due to lower immigration and lower labor force participation. Even so, labor demand has softened, and the recent pace of job September 17, 2025 Chair Powell’s Press Conference FINAL Page 2 of 26 creation appears to be running below the “breakeven” rate needed to hold the unemployment rate constant. In addition, wage growth has continued to moderate, while still outpacing inflation. Overall, the marked slowing in both the supply of and demand for workers is unusual. In this less dynamic and somewhat softer labor market, the downside risks to employment appear to have risen. In our SEP, the median projection for the unemployment rate is 4.5 percent at the end of this year and edges down thereafter. Inflation has eased significantly from its highs in mid-2022 but remains somewhat elevated relative to our 2 percent longer-run goal. Estimates based on the consumer price index and other data indicate that total PCE prices rose 2.7 percent over the 12 months ending in August and that, excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core PCE prices rose 2.9 percent. These readings are higher than earlier in the year, as inflation for goods has picked up. In contrast, disinf