{"id":440836,"date":"2026-10-26T17:40:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T10:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/market-news\/what-is-the-fomc-blackout-period-and-why-do-central-banks-have-one-440836\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T17:40:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T10:40:06","slug":"what-is-the-fomc-blackout-period-and-why-do-central-banks-have-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/market-news\/what-is-the-fomc-blackout-period-and-why-do-central-banks-have-one-440836\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the FOMC blackout period and why do central banks have one"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Central banks influence financial markets through both interest rate decisions and communication. Speeches and interviews can change expectations for future monetary policy, affecting bonds, currencies, equities and so on. To limit these signals immediately before policy decisions, many central banks have a blackout period.<\/p>\n<p>A blackout period is a predefined period during which policymakers are restricted from publicly discussing monetary policy or the upcoming decision. The rules vary across central banks, but the purpose is to ensure that official announcements remain the primary source of information about the committee&#8217;s decision.<\/p>\n<p>The Federal Reserve&#8217;s FOMC blackout period begins at midnight eastern time on the second Saturday before a scheduled meeting and ends at 11:59 p.m. on the day after the meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Other central banks follow similar practices. The ECB observes\u00a0a quiet period beginning seven days before a monetary policy meeting. The\u00a0Bank of England\u00a0restricts Monetary Policy Committee members&#8217; communications for 8-9 days before the official rate announcement. The Bank of Canada restricts communications on monetary policy and the economic outlook during the week before the rate decision. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Before the blackout, policymakers&#8217; speeches can provide clues about their views on inflation, growth and upcoming interest rate decisions. For example, high ranking officials can correct a mispricing in the markets by signalling the most likely outcome of an upcoming meeting to avoid surprises that generally lead to high volatility.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, the blackout period does not prevent markets from pricing in a different outcome. An unexpectedly hot inflation report or employment release can still significantly change interest rate expectations. For example, the higher than expected inflation expectations in the University of Michigan survey released during the blackout period, infamously led the Fed to hike by 75 bps in June 2022.<\/p>\n<p>After the blackout ends, policymakers can  resume public commentary. Their speeches may provide further insight into the decision and the outlook for future policy.\u00a0The policy announcement, accompanying statement and press conference remain the main sources of information. Subsequent speeches can help clarify the committee&#8217;s reaction to new economic developments.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>                            This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at investinglive.com.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Central banks influence financial markets through both interest rate decisions and communication. Speeches and interviews can change expectations for future monetary policy, affecting bonds, currencies, equities and so on. To limit these&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":216,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-440836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}