U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Powell. AP Yonhap News

The Federal Reserve (Fed), the central bank of the United States, lowered its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points on the 10th (local time).

The Fed announced on this day, following the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) regular meeting, that it had decided to lower the benchmark interest rate from the existing 3.75-4.00% to 3.50-3.75%.

This is the third rate cut of the year and the third consecutive one.

Previously, the Fed had lowered rates by 0.25 percentage points in September and October.

With the Fed's latest decision, the interest rate gap between South Korea (2.50%) and the U.S. has narrowed to 1.25 percentage points at the upper bound.

In this meeting, which was the last FOMC of the year, the Fed presented the median forecast for the benchmark interest rate at the end of next year as 3.4%.

This is the same as the September forecast.