from Statista.com
— this post authored by Dyfed Loesche
The U.S. Federal Reserve (FED) has upped the funds rate for the first time under the auspices of its new chair, Jerome Powell, in office since February 2018.
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It’s an expected continuation of Powell’s predecessor Janet Yellen’s fiscal policy. Her last hike dates back to December 2017 when the rate was upped to 1.50 points. Powell in March added 0.25 points to the rate.
Ever since the world economic crisis ten years ago, the American central bank had flat-lined the base rate in order to stimulate the markets. From late 2008 to the end of 2015 the rate ceiling had stood at 0.25 percent. The first upward move to tighten the dollars viscosity was in December 2015 when the FED decided moved the benchmark interest rate up 0.25 points to between 0.50 percent and 0.75, and signaled a faster pace of increases in 2017.
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