Fed lifts rates, door open to another hike

Powell says if Fed needs to raise rates higher, it will. — Bloomberg

WASHINGTON: The Federal Reserve (Fed) has raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point and chair Jerome Powell says the economy still needs to slow and the labour market to weaken for inflation to “credibly” return to the US central bank’s 2% target.

The hike, the Fed’s 11th in its last 12 meetings, set the benchmark overnight interest rate in the 5.25% to 5.50% range, a level last seen just prior to the 2007 housing market crash and which has not been consistently exceeded for about 22 years.