Significant Changes in Federal Reserve Voting Members

According to the Federal Reserve's official website, in 2025, Chicago Fed President Austan D. Goolsbee, Boston Fed President Susan M. Collins, St. Louis Fed President Alberto G. Musalem, and Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey R. Schmid will become the new rotating voting members, replacing the 4 rotating voting members of 2024: Richmond Fed President Thomas I. Barkin, Atlanta Fed President Raphael W. Bostic, San Francisco Fed President Mary C. Daly, and Cleveland Fed President Beth M. Hammack.

From a stance perspective, Goolsbee is viewed as a "dove" voting member, believing that this year's policy rate needs to decrease appropriately to avoid excessive slowing of the labor market. Goolsbee stated in a speech at the end of November last year that he supports further interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and is open to lowering rates at a slower pace, suggesting that rates about a year from now should be slightly lower than the current rate level.

Musalem and Schmid have recently made more "hawkish" remarks. In December 2024, Musalem stated that slowing the pace of rate cuts in 2025 would be appropriate; Schmid, in a speech in October 2024, indicated a tendency to slow the pace of rate cuts.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) consists of 12 members, of which 7 are members of the Federal Reserve Board, 1 is the President of the New York Fed, and the remaining 4 are rotated among the other 11 Fed Presidents in the U.S. for a term of one year.

The Federal Reserve's official website indicates that the Fed will hold a total of 8 meetings in 2025, scheduled for January, March, May, June, July, September, October, and December.

The dot plot released by the Fed in December 2024 shows that the Fed has lowered its forecast for the number of future rate cuts, reducing the number of rate cuts for 2025 from 4 projected in September to 2, with the median interest rate forecast raised from 3.4% in September to 3.9%.