The U.S. Federal Reserve has cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, the second reduction this year. 

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

The latest cut comes about two months after the Fed lowered the key rate for the first time in more than four years with a half-point cut. 

The quarter-point cut narrows the one-point-75-percentage-point gap between the Fed’s rate and that of the Bank of Korea to one-point-five percent. 

Fed officials said in their statement that recent indicators show the economy is expanding at a solid rate, adding since earlier in the year, labor market conditions have generally eased and the jobless rate remains low.