Fed Raises Interest Rates for Third Time Since Financial Crisis -<br />By BINYAMIN APPELBAUMMARCH 15, 2017<br />Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve chairwoman, announced the board’s decision on interest rates.<br />The Federal Reserve delivered the widely expected increase in its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday,<br />and said the domestic economy remained on a path of slow and steady growth.<br />We think we’re moving on the same course we’ve been on.”<br />It is the first time in recent years that the Fed’s forecasts have moved in the direction of tightening, a change in tune<br />that parallels the Fed’s confident tone and its decision to raise rates on Wednesday.<br />The Fed continues to forecast a Goldilocks economy, with the unemployment rate remaining at 4.5 percent<br />and inflation around 2 percent for the next three years.<br />In a statement after a two-day meeting of its policy-making committee, the Fed said<br />that the United States economy continued to chug along, expanding at a “moderate pace.” Employers are hiring, consumers are spending and businesses — the laggards in recent months — are starting to spend a little more, too.<br />The Federal Reserve is raising interest rates for the third time since the financial crisis after being at near zero.<br />The Fed’s preferred measure rose 1.9 percent over the 12 months ending in January, close to the Fed’s 2 percent annual target.<br />A new round of economic projections from the Fed’s senior officials was nearly unchanged from the last round of projections in December.
