The Federal Reserve introduced a visual tool called the "dot plot" in 2012 to communicate where officials think interest rates should be in the coming years. The dot plot is eagerly dissected by ...

The dot plot, decoded When the central bank releases its Summary of Economic Projections each quarter, Fed watchers focus obsessively on one part in particular: the so-called dot plot.

The Fed’s dot plot is a chart updated quarterly that records each Fed official’s projection for the central bank’s key short-term interest rate, the federal funds rate.

The amount of attention on the Fed’s “dot plot” partly reflects the lack of suspense for a meeting at which interest rates are widely expected to be left alone.

After slashing interest rates by a half-percentage point today, the Federal Reserve’s “dot plot” showed that officials project another half-percentage point of cuts this year with further ...