Federal Reserve Raises Interest Rates For First Time Since 2018

Yesterday, the Federal Reserve announced it will be raising interest rates for the first time since 2018. The move marks the end of the fed’s pandemic-era easy money policy with the federal funds rate moving from 0.25% to 0.50%. The quarter percentage-point increase had been hinted at by the central bank with Fed Chair Pro Tempore Jerome Powell hinting at it repeatedly over the past few months and earlier this month he told lawmakers that he favored a quarter-point raise. This is the first raise since December 2018 and is the first time rates have moved from their level of near zero since the bank slashed them at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.