Fed Raises Interest Rates for the First Time Since 2018 Officials signal a quarter-point increase will be followed by six more this year to combat inflation
Federal Reserve officials voted Wednesday to lift interest rates and penciled in six more increases by year’s end, the most aggressive pace in more than 15 years, in an escalating effort to slow inflation that is running at its highest levels in four decades. The Fed will raise its benchmark federal-funds rate by a quarter percentage point to a range between 0.25% and 0.5%, the first-rate increase since 2018. Officials signaled they expect to lift the rate to nearly 2% by the end of this year—slightly higher than the level that prevailed before the pandemic hit the U.S. economy two years ago when they slashed rates to near zero. Their median projections show the rate rising to around 2.75% by the end of 2023, which would be the highest since 2008.