"We're always going into this meeting and asking 'What's the right thing to do for the people we serve?' We do that and we make a decision as a group and then we announce it. That's always what it is,

“The U.S. economy is in good shape,” Powell said. “It's growing at a solid pace. Inflation is coming down. The labor market is in a strong place. We want to keep it there. That's what we're doing. ”

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stressed Wednesday that the central bank will take upcoming interest-rate decisions on a meeting-by-meeting basis as it seeks to dial back restraint of the economy in response to a softening labor market.