Description
Added on the 15/03/2017 19:19:16 - Copyright : Euronews EN
The Federal Reserve has raised the key US interest rate again and says more hikes are coming as it battles soaring prices -- an aggressive stance that has raised fears of a recession. It is the third consecutive increase of 0.75 percentage point by the Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), continuing the forceful action to tamp down inflation that has surged to the highest in 40 years. SOUNDBITE
The Federal Reserve will leave its key interest rate at zero "until we're confident that the economy has weathered recent events and is on track to achieve our maximum employment and price stability goals," says Fed Chair Jerome Powell during a press conference. SOUNDBITE
The US Federal Reserve holds interest rates at a 23-year high. "Today, the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) decided to leave our policy interest rate unchanged and to continue to reduce our securities holdings," announces US Fed Chair Jerome Powell. SOUNDBITE
Fed Chair Jerome Powell announces a quarter-point raise in the US Federal Reserve's benchmark lending rate, "in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to two percent over time." SOUNDBITE
"The median projection for real GDP growth stands at just 0.5 percent this year and next," says US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. SOUNDBITE
Governor Andrew Bailey announces that the Bank of England will raise interest rates by 0.5% to 1.75%, a hike unprecedented since the Bank gained independence in the 1990s, in a bid to tackle surging price rises. British inflation jumped to a four-decade high of 9.4 percent in June, worsening a cost-of-living crisis as workers' wages fail to keep pace. SOUNDBITE