US Federal Reserve Raises Interest Rates

Vanessa Desloires, AFR

The US Federal Reserve has raised interest rates for the first time in nine years, in an historic decision that officially marks the end of the global financial crisis.

The unanimous decision of the Federal Open Markets Committee meeting, delivered at 6am AEDT, lifted the Fed funds rate by 25 basis points, to an effective interest rate range of 0.25 per cent to 0.5 per cent.

In the accompanying statement, the Committee judged “there has been considerable improvement in labour market conditions this year, and it is reasonably confident that inflation will rise, over the medium term, to its 2 percent objective”.

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