Fed raises interest rates amid steady growth

Central bank flags end of ‘accommodative’ policy

WASHINGTON, Sept 26, (RTRS): The US Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday, as expected, and left its monetary policy outlook for the coming years largely unchanged amid steady economic growth and a strong job market.

In a policy statement that marked the end of the era of “accommodative” monetary policy, Fed policymakers lifted the benchmark overnight lending rate by a quarter of a percentage point to a range of 2.00 percent to 2.25 percent.

It still foresees another rate hike in December, three more next year, and one increase in 2020.

That would put the US central bank’s benchmark overnight lending rate at 3.4 percent, roughly half a percentage point above its estimated “neutral” rate of interest, at which rates neither stimulate nor restrict the economy.

That tight policy stance is projected to stay level through 2021. But the Fed sees the economy growing at a fasterthan-expected 3.1 percent this year and continuing to expand moderately for at least three more years, amid sustained low unemployment and stable inflation near the central bank’s 2 percent target.

“The labor market has continued to strengthen ... economic activity has been rising at a strong rate,” the Fed said in a statement that removed its longstanding reference to the fact that monetary policy remained “accommodative.”

It inserted no substitute language for the phrase, which had been a staple of its guidance for financial markets and households for much of the past decade. The wording had become less and less accurate since the central bank began increasing rates in late 2015 from a nearzero level, and its removal means the Fed now considers rates near neutral.

The rate hike was the third this year and the seventh in the last eight quarters. Ahead of Wednesday’s statement, traders put the chance of a rate increase at 95 percent, according to CME Group.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who took over as head of the central bank earlier this year, was scheduled to hold a press conference to elaborate on the policy statement and the latest two-day meeting.

In this file photo Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell testifies before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on ‘The Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress,’ at Capitol Hill in Washington. On Sept 26 the Federal Reserve issues its latest policy statement and updates its interest-rate and economic projections before Powellholds a news conference. (AP)