The U.S. Federal Reserve has announced its third consecutive interest rate cut this year, reducing its benchmark rate by a quarter of a percentage point. 

After 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 to the range of four-point-25 percent to four-point-five percent.

The decision comes after the Fed slashed rates by zero-point-five percentage points in September, followed by a zero-point-25 percentage point drop in November.

The latest 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. 

The Fed is now projecting only two additional 25-basis-point cuts next year, down from the four it had forecast in September. 

The updated projections peg the rate at three-point-nine percent by the end of next year.