Fed on track for half-point hike in May

Rising prices: Pedestrians on the Fifth Avenue in New York. The war in Ukraine has raised food and energy costs, pushing headline inflation further away from the Fed’s 2% target. — Bloomberg

FEDERAL Reserve (Fed) officials are reinforcing expectations they’ll raise interest rates by a half percentage-point next month, accelerating a hawkish pivot to curb the hottest inflation in four decades.

“I think that’s a reasonable option for us because the federal funds rate is very low,” Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said in a Bloomberg Television interview.