The Federal Reserve met expectations and finally increased the reference interest rates in the US to the range of between 0.50% and 0.75%, in what is the first monetary tightening in 2016. It also foresaw three more increases for 2017.
The US central bank said, at the end of its two-day meeting of monetary policy, that inflation indicators “had risen considerably” and that they expect a “somewhat greater” strengthening of labor markets in the future.
The quarter-point monetary tightening occurs at the first meeting of the Federal Reserve after the victory of the Republican candidate Donald Trump in the presidential elections last November.
This time, the decision of the agency headed by Janet Yellen was unanimously adopted without any dissenting vote, as on previous occasions.
Projections on the evolution of rates in the US point at three increases over 2017, instead of two as it was originally planned, which anticipates a rate of adjustment greater than expected.