Federal Reserve raises interest rates by one quarter-point

Janet Yellen.
(Image credit: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the second time in three months Wednesday, bumping the benchmark rate by one quarter-point. The Fed additionally signaled that it would raise rates one more time in 2017 and three times in 2018, each time likely by a quarter-point.

Wednesday's rate hike shows Fed officials "forged ahead with an interest-rate increase and additional plans to tighten monetary policy despite growing concerns over weak inflation," Bloomberg noted. The Fed's inflation target is 2 percent; the core consumer price inflation mark as of Wednesday was 1.7 percent.

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Kimberly Alters

Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.