Federal Reserve Raises The Interest Rates By 75bps

Summary:

• Fed chooses a 75 basis point rate hike.
• Central Banks all around the world are raising interest rates.

Federal Reserves

On Wednesday the Federal Reserve made their interest rate decision to raise interest rates on Wednesday, they chose to raise interest rates by 75 basis points. The market expectations were elevated to 100 basis points in the wake of June CPI inflation data that reflected that, despite the Fed’s efforts to reign in and control the soaring inflation, inflation was stubborn in its moves upward.

The Feds move is likely to cause the US dollar to rally and strengthen against all its major currency pairs and hopefully will aid in bringing down the already soaring inflation rate.

Over the past couple weeks the European Central Bank (ECB), Bank of Canada (BoC) and the Bank of England (BoE) amongst others, have all rasied their interest rates in an attempt tio reign in the soaring inflation rates around the world. The Fed has been periodically raising interest rates at every meeting since May, the first rate hike in may was 50 basis points, which shocked the markets and caused the US Dollar to rally and strengthen across the board. The second interest rate hike by the fed was in June of 75 basis points and was one which shocked the market, thereafter the 75 basis point hike decision today, a further 75 basis points.

The market had priced in a 75 basis point hike but experts raised their expectations to a 100 basis point rate hike, as the Fed continued to reiterate to the market their commitment to reigning in the sky high inflation rates, rates that have not been seen since the 1980s. In a unanimous vote, the Federal Open Market Committee raised the policy rate to a range between 2.25 percent and 2.50 percent, noting that "inflation remained elevated, reflecting supply and demand imbalances connected to the pandemic, increased food and energy prices, and broader pricing pressures."

The FOMC continued by stating that it is "very sensitive" to inflation risks.

Officials observed in the new policy statement that "recent measures of spending and production have weakened," despite the fact that job growth has remained "strong," a pointer to the reality that the substantial rate hikes they have implemented since March are starting to take effect.

The Fed has increased its policy rate by 225 basis points in total this year, on top of a 75-basis-point increase last month and smaller increases in May and March, as it fights an inflation breakout on a par with the 1980s with monetary policy modeled after the 1980s.

As a result, the epidemic era attempts to promote household and corporate spending with cheap money have effectively come to an end. The policy rate is currently at the level that the majority of Fed officials believe has a neutral economic impact. The rate was also achieved in just four months, matching the peak of the central bank's previous tightening cycle, which lasted from late 2015 to late 2018.

Little concrete information about the next actions the Fed might take was provided in its most recent policy statement. The Fed's decision will be greatly influenced by whether or not incoming data indicates that inflation is starting to decline.

Investors anticipate the U.S. central bank to increase the policy rate by at least half a percentage point at its September meeting in light of the most recent data showing consumer prices rising at a rate of more than 9% annually.

Sources: investing.com, reuters