Fed’s rate move

The economy ‘‘is doing well,” Fed Chair Janet Yellen says.

WASHINGTON — Amid solid job growth and rising inflation, Federal Reserve officials on Wednesday nudged up a key interest rate for the second time in three months and signaled two more hikes were coming this year.

After a two-day meeting, members of the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee voted 9-1 to raise the rate 0.25 percentage points to a target between 0.75 percent and 1 percent. Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, voted against the hike because he preferred to keep the rate steady.

The rate hike was widely expected after Fed Chair Janet Yellen and other policymakers strongly hinted last week that the economy was ready for it.

“The simple message is the economy is doing well,” Yellen told reporters after the rate-hike announcement. “We have confidence in the robustness of the economy and its resilience to shocks.”

Stocks jumped after the Fed’s announcement.

Some analysts speculated that Fed officials also could indicate a faster pace of rate hikes this year and next.

Such a move could have put them at odds with Trump administration officials who are pushing tax cuts, regulatory reductions and increased infrastructure spending in an attempt to accelerate economic growth. Higher interest rates could slow that growth.

But the estimates from committee members Wednesday remained at two more quarter-percentage-point rate increases this year and three next year — the same as they indicated the last time they made projections in December.

Those hikes would bring the benchmark rate to 2.1 percent by the end of 2018 — still historically low but a level not reached since early 2008 after a long period near zero.

Yellen said that she and her colleagues were not making assumptions about what fiscal policy changes might becoming from the White House and Congress.

With “great uncertainty” about what policies might be enacted, Yellen said, “We have plenty of time to see what happens.”

She acknowledged an “obvious and notable” increase in consumer and business confidence since President Donald Trump’s election.

But Yellen said she hasn’t yet seen “any hard evidence” that people and business owners have increased their spending as a result.

Inflation was 1.9 percent for the 12 months ended Jan. 31, its highest annual level since 2012, according to the Fed’s preferred measure based on total personal consumption expenditures. That’s close to the Fed’s annual 2 percent target.