The Federal Reserve is about to raise interest rates as inflation continues to surge

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March 16th, 2022

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell collects his notebooks as he testifies before the Senate Banking Committee in Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., on March 3, 2022 in Washington, DC. The Fed is likely to raise interest rates on Wednesday for the first time since 2018.

Jonathan Ernst / Jonathan Ernst

The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates Wednesday for the first time since 2018, kickstarting its efforts to tackle the country’s highest inflation in four decades.

Additional rate hikes are likely to follow in the months to come, as the Fed gradually reverses the extremely easy money policies it’s pursued since the beginning of the pandemic.

“We need to move away from very low interest rates,” Fed chairman Jerome Powell told lawmakers earlier this month. “They’re not appropriate for the current situation in the economy.”

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