Fed Raises Benchmark Interest Rate

The US Department of Labor said the consumer price index (CPI) last month jumped 7.9 percent from a year earlier, the biggest 12-month growth since the period ended January 1982.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Fed's policy-making committee, on Wednesday approved a rate hike by an eight-to-one vote, with Federal Reserve Bank President St. Louis James Bullard disagreed in favor of a larger half percentage point increase.

The Fed's quarterly economic projections released Wednesday (16/3) show most Fed officials expect the federal funds rate to rise to 1.9 percent by the end of this year and around 2.8 percent by the end of 2023.

That implies a total of seven quarter percentage point rate hikes this year and three or four next year.

"Of course, these projections do not represent a Committee decision or plan, and no one knows with any certainty where the economy will be a year or more from now," Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a virtual news conference. (antara/mcr20/jpnn)

This news has been broadcast on JPNN.com with the title: Tok! The Fed Naikkan Suku Bunga Acuan