The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter-point on March 22, 2023, bowing to market expectations that it would temper its aggressive program of rate hikes amid a still-brewing banking crisis.
The U.S. central bank lifted rates to a range of 4.75% to 5%, its ninth-straight increase since March 2022. As late as early March 2023, it appeared that the Fed was planning to resume last year’s full-throttle rate-hiking campaign after slowing down in February. But the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on March 10 forced the central bank to take a step back.
