Data study · Fed interest rate
Federal Reserve Interest Rate History, 2009–2026
The Federal Reserve's benchmark interest rate is the single most powerful number in American finance — the lever that sets the cost of borrowing for everyone else. Here it is month by month since 2009: the near-zero years after the financial crisis, the fastest hiking cycle in decades, the 5.5% peak of July 2023, and where it sits today. Charted, explained, and compared with the UK and Europe.
- Fed rate today 3.75% June 2026 · target upper bound
- Modern-era high 5.5% July 2023
- Modern-era low 0.25% January 2009
- 2009–2026 average 1.55% 20 hikes · 10 cuts
Two decades in one number
The chart above traces the Fed's benchmark rate from 2009 to today, and its shape is the story of the modern economy. It opens flat along the bottom — the Fed had cut its rate to near zero at the end of 2008 to fight the financial crisis, and held it at 0.25% for seven years. A slow, cautious "normalization" lifted it from 2015, only for the COVID-19 pandemic to send it crashing back to zero in 2020. Then came the defining move of the era: to fight 40-year-high inflation, the Fed raised rates at the fastest pace in decades, driving the benchmark to a 5.5% peak in July 2023 — its highest in 22 years — before beginning to cut again toward today's 3.75%.
The zero years, and the great tightening
Two long stretches near zero bookend this record. From 2009 to 2015, and again through 2020–2021, the Fed held rates at rock bottom to nurse the economy through the financial crisis and then the pandemic — an era of cheap money that reshaped everything from mortgages to stock valuations. The end of the second zero era was abrupt. Beginning in early 2022, with inflation surging, the Fed hiked at nearly every meeting, lifting the benchmark from 0.25% to 5.5% in about eighteen months. It was one of the most aggressive tightening campaigns in the Fed's history, and it rippled straight into mortgage rates, credit-card APRs and savings yields. To see the inflation it was fighting, read our study on the historical US inflation rate.
How the US compares with the UK and Europe
The US wasn't acting alone. The same forces — a pandemic recovery, snarled supply chains and an energy shock — pushed central banks worldwide into near-identical cycles. The chart below sets the Fed alongside the Bank of England and the European Central Bank: all three held rates near or below zero through the 2010s, all three hiked hard in 2022–2023, and all three are easing now. The levels differ — and each bank defines its headline rate a little differently — but the choreography is unmistakable.
As of the latest readings, the Fed sits at 3.75%, the Bank of England near 3.73%, and the ECB around 2% — the tail end of a synchronized global easing after the sharpest coordinated tightening in a generation.
The Fed rate in a specific year
Want a single year in detail — where the rate started and ended, what the Fed did and why? Pick a year:
Federal Reserve interest rate — FAQ
What is the federal funds rate?
The federal funds rate is the interest rate US banks charge each other for overnight loans, and it's the Federal Reserve's main policy lever. The Fed sets a target range for it — the figures on this page are the upper bound of that range — and moves it up to cool inflation or down to support growth and jobs. Almost every other interest rate in the economy, from mortgages to savings accounts, takes its cue from it. Today it stands at 3.75%.
What is the highest the federal funds rate has been?
In this 2009–2026 record, the Fed's benchmark peaked at 5.5% in July 2023 — a 22-year high reached to fight the worst inflation in four decades. (Going further back, the rate hit roughly 20% in the early 1980s under Paul Volcker, but that predates this dataset.) Its low here was 0.25% — effectively zero — held during the financial-crisis and COVID-19 eras.
Why does the Fed raise or cut interest rates?
The Fed has a "dual mandate": stable prices and maximum employment. When inflation runs too hot, it raises rates to make borrowing more expensive, cooling spending and demand. When the economy weakens and unemployment rises, it cuts rates to make borrowing cheaper and encourage activity. Because rate changes take months to ripple through the economy, the Fed is always acting on a forecast — which is why its moves are so closely watched and debated.
How does the Fed rate affect me?
When the Fed raises its benchmark, the interest on credit cards, car loans, and adjustable-rate debt tends to rise quickly, and savings-account and money-market yields improve. Fixed mortgage rates track longer-term Treasury yields more than the Fed rate directly, but they move in the same broad direction. Over this record the benchmark went from 0.25% to 5.5% and back toward 3.75%, and the cost of borrowing across the economy moved with it.
How many times has the Fed changed rates since 2009?
Across this monthly record the Fed's benchmark rose in 20 months and fell in 10, averaging 1.55% over the whole 2009–2026 period. Long stretches near zero (2009–2015 and 2020–2021) sat between two dramatic tightening cycles.
Where does this interest-rate data come from?
All figures come from US federal funds target rate (upper bound of the target range) — via APIVerve. Each point is the month's US federal funds target rate (upper bound). The US/UK/EU comparison uses each central bank's published headline rate; headline central-bank policy rate, january of each year (definitions differ by bank). The record runs monthly from 2009-01 to 2026-06.
Source & method
Data: US federal funds target rate (upper bound of the target range) — via APIVerve. Each US point is the month's federal funds target rate (upper bound of the range). Headline central-bank policy rate, January of each year (definitions differ by bank). The record runs monthly from 2009-01 to 2026-06. Snapshot generated July 2026. Free to cite or embed with a link back to this page.
