In a unanimous vote, the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on June 29 raised the federal finds target rate by a quarter of a point to 5.25%. The move was widely anticipated.
The FOMC's next scheduled meeting is on August 8, and the panel certainly is not ruling out another target rate increase less than two months from now. "Although the moderation in the growth of aggregate demand should help limit inflation pressures over time, the Committee judges that some inflation risks remain," the FOMC said in a statement. "The extent and timing of any additional firming that may be needed to address these risks will depend on the evolution of the outlook for both inflation and economic growth, as implied by incoming information."
The federal funds target rate is the interest that banks charge each other on overnight loans.
