The Federal Reserve on Wednesday almost certainly will lower interest rates for the first time in more than four years as the U.S. central bank starts to reverse the restrictive conditions it imposed to beat back inflation,

The Federal Reserve will begin a rate-cutting path, as soon as Sept. 18. Inflation and the economy remain hot topics in the presidential election.

We concluded that this was the right thing for the economy and the people we serve,” the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, said, referring to the central bank’s decision to cut interest rates by half a point.