9 Oct 2019 The federal funds rate is the primary interest rate that banks charge The wealth effect shows that as prices increase, a household's actual The interest rate targeted by the Federal Reserve, the range of the federal funds rate, is currently 1.0% to 1.25%. That’s after the Fed cut it half of a percentage point on March 3, 2020. It was the first rate cut in 2020 and came in response to the threat posed to the economy by the coronavirus . The US Federal Reserve raised interest rates again on Wednesday despite intense, and unprecedented, pressure from Donald Trump to leave rates unchanged. After a two-day meeting, the central bank announced rates would rise a quarter of a percentage point, to a range of 2.25% to 2.5%, the ninth such move since late 2015.