Fed Plans to Raise Rates in 2018 but Lacks Consensus on Frequency<br />The decision at that meeting to raise the benchmark rate into a range between 1.25 percent<br />and 1.5 percent reflected the Fed’s optimistic expectations for the economy, the account said.<br />But six officials predicted two hikes or fewer and four officials predicted the Fed would raise rates at least four times.<br />An account of the Fed’s final meeting of 2017, which the central bank published Wednesday, said officials generally agreed<br />that the Fed should continue to raise its benchmark rate in the new year.<br />Six of the 16 officials on the Federal Open Market Committee predicted during the December meeting that the Fed would raise rates three times in 2018.<br />In the December round of economic projections, the median forecast of Fed officials was<br />that the economy would grow 2.5 percent in 2018, up from a median forecast of 2.1 percent in September.
