Fed Raises Interest Rates by 75 Basis Points to Fight Inflation
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it would raise its benchmark interest rate 0.75 percentage points — the largest one-time increase since 1994 — in an attempt to curb persistent high inflation.
Wednesday’s rate hike marks an acceleration from May’s 0.50-point increase; inflation sped up in May after slowing down in April. Some experts have raised concerns that larger rate hikes could trigger a recession.
In a statement, the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee — which made the interest rate decision — cited rising economic activity, “robust” job gains and low unemployment as positive economic factors. It described inflation as being driven by “supply and demand imbalances related to the pandemic, higher energy prices, and broader price pressures,” including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Chinese COVID-19 lockdowns. The Fed adjusts interest rates by altering the federal funds rate, the rate at which banks lend to each other overnight to meet asset reserve requirements.
Coverage was widespread and prominently featured across the spectrum on Wednesday afternoon. Headlines across the spectrum used words like “historic” and “record” to describe the rate hike. Some coverage from the right appeared to frame the Fed as losing control of inflation; the New York Post’s (Lean Right bias) coverage included words like “reckoning” and “frantically.”
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Left
Fed attacks inflation with its largest rate hike since 1994![AllSides Media Bias Rating: Lean Left AllSides Media Bias Rating: Lean Left](https://www.allsides.com/sites/default/files/bias-leaning-left.png)
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The Federal Reserve on Wednesday intensified its drive to tame high inflation by raising its key interest rate by three-quarters of a point — its largest hike in nearly three decades — and signaling more large rate increases to come that would raise the risk of another recession.
The move the Fed announced after its latest policy meeting will raise its benchmark short-term rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, to a range of 1.5% to 1.75%. With the additional rate hikes they foresee, the policymakers expect their key...
From the Center
Fed hikes its benchmark interest rate by 0.75 percentage point, the biggest increase since 1994![AllSides Media Bias Rating: Center AllSides Media Bias Rating: Center](https://www.allsides.com/sites/default/files/bias-center.png)
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The Federal Reserve on Wednesday launched its biggest broadside yet against inflation, raising benchmark interest rates three-quarters of a percentage point in a move that equates to the most aggressive hike since 1994.
Ending weeks of speculation, the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee took the level of its benchmark funds rate to a range of 1.5%-1.75%, the highest since just before the Covid pandemic began in March 2020.
From the Right
Fed raises interest rates by 75-basis points in historic move to fight inflation![AllSides Media Bias Rating: Lean Right AllSides Media Bias Rating: Lean Right](https://www.allsides.com/sites/default/files/bias-leaning-right.png)
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The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate by 75-basis points for the first time in nearly three decades as policymakers intensify their fight to cool red-hot inflation, a move that threatens to slow U.S. economic growth and exacerbate financial pressure on Americans.
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