More Hikes Planned as Federal Reserve Boosts Key Interest Rate by 0.25 Percent
Posted on 02/01/2023
The Federal Reserve had raised its key federal funds rate by 0.25%. This is the smallest rate hike since the central bank began an aggressive rate increase campaign that has produced nearly monthly rate hikes since March 2022. In Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s remarks, he and other Federal Reserve officials believed “a couple” more hikes would likely suffice to reach a high enough interest rate at which the Federal Reserve would feel comfortable pausing the increases. The Federal Reserve appears to not yet be convinced that U.S. inflationary pressures will dissipate quickly.
“We can now say for the first time that the disinflationary process has started. We can see that and we see it really in goods prices so far,” Jerome Powell said at the post-meeting press conference.
Keywords: Federal Reserve System.
