The U.S. Federal Reserve has cut its key interest rate for the first time in more than four years. 

Following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed said in a statement Wednesday that it has decided to lower the target for its key lending rate by zero-point-five percentage points to the range of four-point-75 percent to five percent.

The half-point cut, the first cut since March 2020, narrows the two-percentage-point gap between the Fed’s rate and that of the Bank of Korea to one-point-five percent. The Fed rate had been at a 23-year high, between five-point-25 and five-point-five percent. 

The Fed said the committee “has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward two percent, and judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance.”

Fed officials say they expect the key rate to drop to about four-point-four percent by the end of the year.