27 July: Federal Reserve Hikes Rate In Battle Against Inflation
The United States Federal Reserve today raised its target benchmark interest rate by 0.75 percentage points to a range between 2.25% to 2.5%.
It implemented a same-sized increase in June from a base of 1% (see story below).
The scale and pace of the increases is seen by economists as an indication of the growing sense of urgency at the US central bank as it battles inflation standing at 9.1%, the highest it has been since the beginning of the 1980s.
The three main US market indices all responded positively to the move. The Dow Jones Industrial Index rose by over 530 points to 32,291 while the S&P 500 rose by almost 3% to 4,037. The NASDAQ index of tech stocks increased by over 4% to top 12,000.
In the UK, the main Bank interest rate stands at 1.25% – it was increased from 1% in June – while inflation is running at 9.4%. The Bank of…
