The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised interest rates by 0.75%, the largest move it has made in a single meeting since 1994.
The central bank said that further interest rate hikes will come this year, as the Fed leans on higher borrowing costs to dampen demand and work to slow faster-than-expected inflation.
“Overall economic activity appears to have picked up after edging down in the first quarter,” the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement, repeating its commitment to “ongoing increases.”
The Fed decision lifts short-term borrowing costs to a target range between 1.5% and 1.75%.
In economic projections released Wednesday, the median Fed policymaker expects to further raise interest rates to roughly 3.4% by the end of the year. That would suggest another 1.75% in total rate hikes, spread across the remaining four scheduled policy-setting meetings this year.
The Fed is now messaging a much steeper path of rate hikes than it had previously forecast in March (when the median member projected a year-end short-term rate closer to 1.9%).
Click here to read the full report from Brian Cheung at Yahoo Finance.
