Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement

The Federal Reserve approved a rare half-percentage-point interest rate increase and announced plans to shrink its $9 trillion asset portfolio starting next month in a double-barreled effort to reduce inflation that is running at a four-decade high.

The moves, announced after a two-day policy meeting Wednesday, will raise the central bank’s benchmark federal-funds rate to a target range between 0.75% and 1%.

Together, the steps mark the most aggressive Fed tightening of monetary policy at one meeting in decades, aimed at rapidly reducing the economic stimulus that has contributed to rising price pressures. The Fed, which usually lifts interest rates in quarter-percentage-point increments, last raised rates by a half point in 2000.

Major stock indexes rose after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank is not “actively considering” raising interest rates in three-quarter percentage point increments. Shares of technology companies notched some of the biggest gains.

Source: The Wall Street Journal