The Federal Reserve raised 75 basis points for the third time in a row

Xinhua News Agency, Washington, September 21 (Reporter Xiong Maoling) The US Federal Reserve Committee ended a two -day monetary policy meeting on the 21st, announcing that the federal fund interest rate target range was raised between 75 basis to 3%and 3.25%. This is the third consecutive interest rate hikes of the Federal Reserve for 75 basis points this year.

The Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said at a press conference held after the meeting that in order to reduce the current high inflation to the Fed's target level, the US economy will go through a period below the trend level, and the labor market will also be soft, but this needs to bear to bear it. The pain of restoration is especially important.

According to the latest quarterly economic forecast released by the Federal Reserve on the same day, the Federal Reserve officials have a medium to 0.2%of the economic growth rate of economic growth in the fourth quarter of last year to the fourth quarter of this year, which is significantly lower than the 1.7%of the June forecast, which reflects their economic prospects for the US economic prospects. The expectations are even more pessimistic. The forecast shows that the Federal Reserve officials' prediction of the US unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2023 is 4.4%, which is 0.5 percentage points from the June forecast.

Powell admits that in the process of curbing inflation and restoring price stability, it will be very challenging to achieve a relatively mild unemployment increase and achieve economic "soft landing". He said that if monetary policy needs to be further tightened to a more restrictive level, or tightening needs to continue, the possibility of "soft landing" will be reduced.

Powell also reiterated its eagle signal released in late August, that is, emphasizing the determination of the Federal Reserve to reduce inflation, and be alert to the serious consequences of prematurely relaxing monetary policy and citing high inflation.

The latest quarterly economic forecast of the Federal Reserve also shows that the Federal Reserve officials have a median prediction of Federal Fund interest rates at the end of this year by 4.4%, which is significantly higher than the June forecast of 3.4%; the medium value of Federal Fund interest rates at the end of next year is 4.6%.

The Fed started in March this year to respond to high inflation, and has raised interest rates for 5 consecutive times, with a cumulative rate hike of 300 basis points.

[Editor in charge: Feng Li]

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