Interest rates are at their highest level since 2007, just before that decade’s financial crisis.
Topline
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates again Wednesday to a 16-year high, making borrowing costs between banks even more expensive and shaking off calls to take a time-out on hikes to focus on cooling the banking crisis.Key Facts
The Fed’s policy-setting committee said it will hike the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to between 4.75% and 5% following its two-day meeting amid the economic turbulence.
Interest rates are now at their highest level since late 2007.
Notably, the Fed’s statement did not explicitly refer to any future increases, instead saying “additional policy firming may be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation” to its 2% target.
It’s the first time in months the central bank didn’t say it expected further hikes “will be appropriate,” but the Fed’s projections for the year-end federal funds rate stayed firm at 5.1%, indicating another rate hike over the next nine months remains the most-likely scenario.
