As widely expected the Federal Reserve raised the federal funds target range to 0.25% to 0.5% on Wednesday, an increase of a quarter point.
The vote on the monetary policy action was supported by all the Committee except James Bullard, president of the Saint Louis Fed, who proposed raising the target rate by 0.5 percentage point.
According to CNBC the committee foresees six more rate hikes this year and three more in 2023, as it battles to control record inflation.
“The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is causing tremendous human and economic hardship,” noted the committee. “The implications for the U.S. economy are highly uncertain, but in the near term the invasion and related events are likely to create additional upward pressure on inflation and weigh on economic activity.”
The Fed also resolved to start reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency-backed securities during one of the following meetings.
