PANews reported on December 20 that according to Jinshi, the annual changes in the composition of the Federal Reserve FOMC voting committee next year may slightly increase resistance to further interest rate cuts. Compared with the outgoing voting committee, the incoming voting committee is more hawkish. TD Securities analyst Oscar Munoz said, "This opens the door for more dissenting votes next year."
At the December FOMC meeting, four of the Fed’s 19 policymakers wrote down predictions that this rate cut was inappropriate, with Cleveland Fed President Hammack voting against it. Hammack will exit the FOMC next year and be replaced by Chicago Fed President Goolsbee, who believes that policy rates need to be cut sharply next year and is clearly more dovish than Hammack. But two other new voters—St. Louis Fed President Musalem and Kansas City Fed President Schmid—will make the 2025 voting committee tougher, replacing Atlanta Fed President Bostic and San Francisco Fed President Daly, who are seen as centrists.
TD Securities analysts speculated that Mousallem was one of four policymakers who submitted forecasts opposing the rate cut, and another may be Schmid. Both have signaled some hesitation about further rate cuts. The fourth may be Fed Governor Bowman, who opposed a 50 basis point rate cut in September but may switch to support this week's rate cut during the two-day meeting.
