The Federal Reserve Board announced another three-quarter percent interest rate hike, today, the third such hike in a row. The short term benchmark rate will now be in the range of 3 to 3.25%, the highest since 2008. Fed officials said that another rate hike could follow before year’s end to as high as 4.4%.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at a press conference that before Fed officials would consider halting their rate hikes, they would “want to be very confident that inflation is moving back down” to their 2% target, reports the AP. He claimed that the strength of the job market is fueling pay gains that are helping drive up inflation. And he stressed his belief that curbing inflation is vital to ensuring the long-term health of the job market. “If we want to light the way to another period of a very strong labor market,” Powell said, “we have got to get inflation behind us. I wish there was a painless way to do that. There isn’t.”
