Next year, the number of hawkish Fed voters may increase to at least three

PANews reported on December 20 that, according to Jinshi, the annual changes in the composition of the FOMC voters next year may slightly increase resistance to further rate cuts. Compared to the outgoing voters, the incoming voters are more hawkish. TD Securities analyst Oscar Munoz stated, 'This opens the door for more dissenting votes next year.'

At the December FOMC meeting, four of the 19 Fed decision-makers wrote down forecasts indicating that this rate cut was inappropriate, with Cleveland Fed President Harker casting a dissenting vote. Harker will exit the FOMC next year, to be replaced by Chicago Fed President Goolsbee, who believes that policy rates need to be significantly lowered next year, clearly more dovish than Harker. However, the other two new voters—St. Louis Fed President Musalem and Kansas City Fed President Schmidt—will make the 2025 voting members' stance more hawkish, taking over from the centrist Atlanta Fed President Bostic and San Francisco Fed President Daly.

TD Securities analysts speculate that Musalem is one of the four policymakers who submitted forecasts opposing this rate cut, and another may be Schmidt, both of whom have suggested some hesitation towards further rate cuts. The fourth may be Fed Governor Bowman, who opposed a 50 basis point rate cut in September but may have shifted to support this week's cut during the two-day meeting.