The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised interest rates for a sixth straight time, extending a policy of gradually lifting borrowing costs to levels high enough to ward off inflation pressures.
The unanimous decision by the U.S. central bank’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee moves the target for the benchmark federal funds rate — which affects credit costs throughout the economy — to 2.5 percent.
In a statement issued after a two-day meeting, Fed officials retained an assessment that economic risks were balanced between slower growth and rising prices and said they thought they could keep raising rates at a “measured” pace.
The central bank’s wording on the economy all but mirrored the statement it issued at its last policy meeting on Dec. 14.
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