FACTBOX: History of sharp Fed interest rate cuts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve's three-quarters of percentage point cut to the overnight federal funds rate on January 22 was among its biggest and most abrupt reductions in borrowing costs since the early 1980s.

The Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee is expected to cut rates again at a two-day meeting concluding on Wednesday.

Historical comparisons to rate cuts earlier than 1990 are difficult to pinpoint because the Fed shifted gradually over the 1980s to a policy of attaining a specified level of the federal funds rate, a process that was completed by the end of the decade.

Since July 1990, the Fed has cut the federal funds rate by a half-percentage point 13 times, but never by as much as three-quarters of a point at one time until January 22.

Following are past instances when policy-makers have sharply lowered the federal funds rate over brief periods:

-- January 22, 2008

From 4.25 percent to 3.5 percent, a drop of 75 basis points (a basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point)

-- January 3, 2001 to January 31, 2001

From 6.5 percent to 5.5 percent, a decline of 100 basis points.

-- December 6, 1991 to December 20, 1991

From 4.75 percent to 4 percent, a fall of 75 basis points.

-- Early September 1984 to mid-October 1984

From a range of 11.75 percent to 11.5 percent to around 10 percent, a decrease of 175 to 150 basis points.

-- August 2, 1982 to August 27, 1982

From a range of 12 percent to 11.5 percent to around 9.5 percent, an easing of 250 to 200 basis points.

-- April 1980 to mid-May 1980

From around 20 percent to a range of 11.5 percent and 10.5 percent, a tumble of around 950 to 850 basis points.

Sources:

New York Fed (here)

Fed board

(here)

(Compiled by Mark Felsenthal)