---
ticker: "USFFLOWER"
title: "U.S. Federal Funds Target Range Lower Limit"
unit: "%"
frequency: "Daily"
source: "Bindseil (2004); Borio (1997)"
release: "Updated Daily"
category: "Interest Rates"
country: "US"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://kred.dev/en/series/USFFLOWER"
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"
latest_value: 3.75
latest_date: "2026-10-25"
first_date: "2008-12-16"
observations_total: 6523
observations_shown: 120
---

# U.S. Federal Funds Target Range Lower Limit

## Overview

The announced lower boundary of the US overnight operating-target range, a daily step function that moves only on policy decision dates.

## Key Figures

|  | Value | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Latest | 3.75 | 2026-10-25 |
| Change from previous | 0.00 | 2026-10-24 |
| Change over one year | -0.25 | 2025-10-25 |
| Highest on record | 5.25 | 2023-07-27 |
| Lowest on record | 0.00 | 2008-12-16 |
| Period covered | 2008-12-16 – 2026-10-25 |  |
| Observations | 6523 |  |

## Recent observations

| Date | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-06-28 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-06-29 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-06-30 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-01 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-02 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-03 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-04 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-05 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-06 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-07 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-08 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-09 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-10 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-11 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-12 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-13 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-14 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-15 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-16 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-17 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-18 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-19 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-20 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-21 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-22 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-23 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-24 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-25 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-26 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-27 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-28 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-29 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-30 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-07-31 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-01 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-02 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-03 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-04 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-05 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-06 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-07 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-08 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-09 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-10 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-11 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-12 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-13 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-14 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-15 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-16 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-17 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-18 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-19 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-20 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-21 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-22 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-23 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-24 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-25 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-26 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-27 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-28 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-29 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-30 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-08-31 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-01 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-02 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-03 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-04 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-05 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-06 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-07 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-08 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-09 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-10 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-11 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-12 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-13 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-14 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-15 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-16 | 3.50 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-17 | 3.75 | +0.25 |
| 2026-09-18 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-19 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-20 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-21 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-22 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-23 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-24 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-25 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-26 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-27 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-28 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-29 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-09-30 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-01 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-02 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-03 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-04 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-05 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-06 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-07 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-08 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-09 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-10 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-11 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-12 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-13 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-14 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-15 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-16 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-17 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-18 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-19 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-20 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-21 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-22 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-23 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-24 | 3.75 | 0.00 |
| 2026-10-25 | 3.75 | 0.00 |

## Definition

USFFLOWER is the published lower limit of the operating-target range for the overnight rate, carried into KRED and recorded as-is without transformation, filtering, or interpolation. It is not a market-clearing price but the lower boundary of a range that the monetary authority announces at scheduled policy meetings and holds until the next decision, and the series is recorded as a daily step function that changes only on decision dates and is otherwise flat.

The construction is that of an operating target, the controlled short-term rate around which policy implementation is organized, and the theory of such targets together with the standing-facility corridor that supports them is set out across countries (Bindseil 2004; Borio 1997). What the boundary bounds is a rate of interest in the sense of the price equating present and future income (Fisher 1930).

The lower boundary marks where the announced range ends and not the instrument that holds the overnight rate above it, since the administered rates that pin the rate inside the range, among them the rate paid on reserve balances that KRED serves separately as USIORB, are distinct instruments and distinct series. How an overnight rate is steered toward a target inside a corridor by open-market operations and standing facilities is the subject of the operating-procedure literature (Bartolini, Bertola, and Prati 2002).

The market the range brackets is overnight unsecured lending of reserve balances, whose rate is determined by the daily clearing of that market and measured at the level of individual transactions, and KRED serves the resulting effective rate as USEFFR (Hamilton 1996; Furfine 1999). The secured overnight financing market is a separate market whose rate falls below general levels when collateral trades special, and KRED serves that rate as USSOFR (Duffie 1996).

The recorded series begins at 2008-12-16, the first date on which the operating target was announced as a range rather than as a single level, so no upper and lower limit exist for the earlier period and USFFUPPER begins at the same date. Through the term-structure lens the boundary brackets the current short rate whose expected path plus a premium determines longer yields (Hicks 1939), and those longer yields are computed within the yield-to-maturity convention and the zero-coupon measurement tradition (Macaulay 1938; McCulloch 1971; Nelson and Siegel 1987; Svensson 1994; Gürkaynak, Sack, and Wright 2007). None of these constructions are applied to USFFLOWER itself, which remains at the recorded level.

## Methodology

KRED applies no transformation to USFFLOWER and performs neither rescaling, deflating, smoothing, nor annualizing. The methodology is therefore confined to the measurement basis by which an announced boundary of an operating-target range comes to exist.

The value is not an average formed in transactions but a level chosen by a policy committee and published as a percentage per annum, which constitutes an operating-target construction (Borio 1997; Bindseil 2004). That target is maintained through open-market operations and standing facilities that steer the overnight rate inside the corridor the boundaries describe (Bartolini, Bertola, and Prati 2002).

The overnight rate so bracketed is formed in unsecured interbank lending, whose daily determination and transaction-level measurement are the subject of the microstructure literature (Hamilton 1996; Furfine 1999), and it is distinct from the secured financing rate that responds to collateral scarcity (Duffie 1996).

The record is a step function updated only on decision dates, with no interpolation or smoothing applied between decisions, and what it records is a rate of interest in the sense of the price equating present and future income (Fisher 1930).

To situate the short rate this boundary brackets within the measured yield curve, the same level serves as a reference point for zero-coupon and forward-rate construction. That construction begins from the yield-to-maturity concept and continues through spline recovery and its tax-adjusted refinement, exponential splines, parsimonious parametric fitting and its extension, operational daily curve building, and comparative evaluation, closing with the duration mapping (Macaulay 1938; McCulloch 1971, 1975; Vasicek and Fong 1982; Nelson and Siegel 1987; Svensson 1994; Gürkaynak, Sack, and Wright 2007; Bliss 1997; Fisher and Weil 1971). None of these constructions are applied to USFFLOWER itself, which remains at the recorded level.

## Applications in Economics

The lower limit is one of the two announced boundaries through which the stance of monetary policy is communicated and implemented, and the operating-target framework that assigns a boundary this role is formalized within the standard apparatus of policy implementation (Bindseil 2004; Borio 1997).

Announcing a range rather than a single level makes explicit the width within which the overnight rate may settle, and steering it inside that width is the daily work of liquidity management (Bartolini, Bertola, and Prati 2002). Reserve supply and the administered rates jointly determine the overnight rate, an effect traced at the transaction level (Hamilton 1996; Furfine 1999).

Whether the overnight rate settles near the bottom or the top of the range is informative about reserve conditions, and the secured financing rate supplies the collateralized comparison against which that position is read (Duffie 1996). The comparison is a reading rather than a computation, since KRED serves the limit itself and forms no spread from it.

The current boundary and the expected path of the range move the whole term structure through the expectations-and-premium decomposition (Hicks 1939), so the economic reach of the announced limit extends far beyond the overnight market into the measured yield curve (Macaulay 1938; McCulloch 1971; Nelson and Siegel 1987; Svensson 1994; Gürkaynak, Sack, and Wright 2007).

## Applications in Financial Markets

Because the announced range brackets the shortest rate in the economy, it frames the front end of every discount curve, and the instruments discounted off that front end carry their rate exposure through the duration concept that maps yield to the timing of cash flows and through the term-structure duration that underlies immunization (Macaulay 1938; Fisher and Weil 1971).

The zero-coupon and forward curves used to discount and hedge are built outward from that front end, and their construction runs from spline recovery and its tax-adjusted refinement through exponential splines and parametric forms to daily curve building, with the methods compared one against another (McCulloch 1971, 1975; Vasicek and Fong 1982; Nelson and Siegel 1987; Svensson 1994; Gürkaynak, Sack, and Wright 2007; Bliss 1997).

On the funding side the boundary is a reference against which overnight cash is priced and rolled, while the rate actually paid is formed in the unsecured market and measured from transactions, and the secured market supplies the collateralized alternative (Hamilton 1996; Furfine 1999; Duffie 1996).

Treasury and asset-liability desks therefore read the announced boundary together with the corridor mechanics that steer the overnight rate inside it, and they treat the boundary as the policy setting rather than as a rate at which funds change hands (Bartolini, Bertola, and Prati 2002; Bindseil 2004).

## Statistical Tests

The lower limit of the federal funds target range is an administered policy setting rather than a traded price, so it is read as a step level that moves only when the range is reset, and the battery is applied to that level. On the 6,433 daily observations spanning 2008-12-16 to 2026-07-27, fit with a constant and trend, the unit-root battery agrees that the limit is integrated of order one. The augmented Dickey-Fuller test of Dickey and Fuller (1979), in the ARMA-consistent lag-augmented form of Said and Dickey (1984) and with lag length set as in Ng and Perron (2001), does not reject a unit root with p = 0.8857, the nonparametric Phillips and Perron (1988) test concurs with p = 0.8926, and the Kwiatkowski et al. (1992) stationarity test rejects its trend-stationary null at p < 0.01, so the verdict is an unambiguous I(1). The GLS-detrended power escalation of Elliott, Rothenberg, and Stock (1996) is reserved for ambiguous outcomes under the house protocol and is not required on this clean reading.

Because the level is integrated, the mean-shift and serial-correlation diagnostics are run on the first difference, the stationary object those procedures require, since a break search or a portmanteau on an integrated level would spuriously segment and read near-unit autocorrelations (Bai and Perron 1998; Perron 1989). The multiple-break procedure of Bai and Perron (1998), computed by the dynamic-programming algorithm of Bai and Perron (2003), finds no break in the mean of the differenced series, consistent with the parameter-instability inference of Andrews (1993). The Ljung and Box (1978) portmanteau statistic, refining the original Box and Pierce (1970) form, is computed on the first difference and does not reject the white-noise null at lag 10, with Q = 0.00739988 at p = 1.000, while at lag 20 it rejects with Q = 50.5919 at p = 0.000182122. The two rungs therefore point in opposite directions, and neither reading is generalized to the other. The near-zero lag-10 value is the signature of an administered step level whose first difference vanishes except on the days the range is reset, so the lag-20 rejection is read as the spacing of those resets rather than as trading dynamics. The automatic portmanteau test of Escanciano and Lobato (2009) does not reject either, with a statistic of 1.08995 at p = 0.296482.

The series is daily and has no low-integer seasonal period, so the seasonal-unit-root machinery of Hylleberg et al. (1990) and the Canova and Hansen (1995) seasonal-stationarity test are not applicable and are deliberately not run, the degeneracy of the seasonal auxiliary regression at a daily period being the standard ground (Beaulieu and Miron 1992; Ghysels and Osborn 2001).

## Frequently Asked Questions

### What do the federal funds target range and effective rate series carry?

The effective overnight rate together with the upper and lower bounds of the policy target range, all carried as published.

### Why are the effective federal funds rate and the target range kept apart?

The range is the policy decision and the effective rate is the outcome realised in the market. Where the effective rate sits within the range carries information about reserve supply and short-term funding conditions.

### Why is the federal funds target set as a range rather than one rate?

The operating framework sets a band and steers the market rate inside it. Collapsing it to a midpoint discards both the width of the band and the position of the rate within it.