Fed to Keep 8 Annual Meetings, Devote 6 to Rates in 2028
Key Facts
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said on October 28 that the Federal Open Market Committee will keep 8 annual meetings but change how they are divided between strategy discussions and interest-rate decisions. The change begins next autumn, Warsh said, with one meeting in 2027 devoted to broad monetary policy strategy. In 2028, there are expected to be 2 strategy sessions and 6 policy-setting meetings. The number of committee meetings will therefore remain unchanged, while the number devoted to interest-rate decisions will fall in 2028. Warsh said: "We think 8 meetings a year is the right number for the Federal Open Market Committee."
The 2027 strategy meeting will differ from the usual meetings, which end with a decision on the federal funds rate and a monetary policy statement. Warsh said the meeting will focus exclusively on broad monetary policy strategy, with no expected vote on interest rates or policy statement. The other meetings that year will be regular policy-setting meetings, he said. The change begins in autumn 2027, making that year a transition period before meetings are divided between strategy and rates in 2028. Warsh said the other sessions will be "regular monetary policy-setting meetings."
The Federal Open Market Committee scheduled October 26 and 27, 2027, for a discussion of broad monetary policy strategy issues, according to a Federal Reserve statement issued on November 12. The meeting will not include a policy decision, as usual on the second day, Reuters reported, citing the revised schedule. The March, June and September 2027 meetings also no longer carry the marker for meetings at which officials present quarterly economic projections. The schedule change comes as a team reviews communications and strategy practices, including whether to continue publishing the dot plot, Reuters reported. The statement did not specify a timeline for the outcome of that review in the available evidence.
The revised schedule sets November 16 and 17, 2027, as the committee’s final meeting that year, replacing December 7 and 8; it will be a rate-setting meeting. Officials will not meet again until January 25 and 26, 2028, a full two-month gap, according to Reuters. This arrangement means the October strategy session will not be the final meeting of 2027; it will be followed by the November policy session. The committee will then resume meetings in January, as part of the schedule that Warsh expects to include 2 strategy sessions and 6 policy-setting meetings in 2028. These dates are part of the change Warsh said will begin next autumn.
Warsh linked setting aside time for strategy to the importance of allowing for long-term discussion among committee members, alongside regular and well-informed assessments of near-term developments. He said the intellectually diverse group should reserve time and space "for strategic deliberation and rethinking the big questions." That rationale aligns with devoting a full meeting in 2027 and 2 meetings in 2028 to strategy discussions, he said. Against the backdrop of the change, the Associated Press reported that Warsh believes markets have become too reliant on Federal Reserve guidance. The agency added that he believes this kind of guidance is more useful during financial crises or economic downturns.
The schedule announcement followed the October meeting, at which the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged by a vote of 10 to 2. Lisa Cook and Beth Hammack voted to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by a quarter of a percentage point, according to the central bank’s statement. As for the schedule change’s impact, the Associated Press said it is not expected to make much difference to markets or the economy because the Federal Reserve can change interest rates between meetings when needed, as it has done before. The new arrangement changes the dates of strategy sessions and the number of policy-setting meetings in 2028, while keeping the total number of annual meetings at 8. The next meeting after the final session of 2027 will be on January 25 and 26, 2028.