All systems go for Fed's liftoff of U.S. interest rates

Fed chair Jerome Powell

WASHINGTON: The Federal Reserve on Wednesday will close the door on its ultra-easy pandemic-era monetary policy and step up the fight against stubbornly high inflation with the first in what is likely to be a series of interest rate hikes his year.

The shift, beginning with an expected quarter-percentage-point increase in the U.S. central bank's benchmark overnight interest rate, has been in the works since last fall and has already driven up the cost of home mortgages and other key types of credit in anticipation of what the Fed will do to curb prices that are rising at their fastest pace in 40 years.