The Fed announced the fourth consecutive three-quarters of a percentage point interest rate hike yesterday, taking the target range of 3.75% to 4%, its highest since January 2008. A similar aggressive pace of monetary policy tightening was last seen in the early 1980s.
After the initial dovish statement, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated that the central bank would continue to battle the rising prices until it could achieve its long-term inflation target. Powell said that the terminal rate would go higher than expected earlier and that any talk of pausing rate hikes would be “premature.”
