(NBC News) — Federal Reserve officials, amid signs that the economy soon could shed its long period of stagnation, approved the first interest rate hike in just about a year Wednesday and indicated a modestly more aggressive path ahead.
The Federal Open Market Committee raised its target range from 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent to 0.5 percent to 0.75 percent. The overnight funds rate currently sits at 0.41 percent.
The committee also approved a quarter-point increase in the discount, or primary credit, rate, from 1 percent to 1.25 percent.
Federal Reserve officials, amid signs that the economy soon could shed its long period of stagnation, approved the first interest rate hike in just about a year Wednesday and indicated a modestly more aggressive path ahead.
The Federal Open Market Committee raised its target range from 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent to 0.5 percent to 0.75 percent. The overnight funds rate currently sits at 0.41 percent.
The committee also approved a quarter-point increase in the discount, or primary credit, rate, from 1 percent to 1.25 percent.
The decision was unanimous. Previous meetings had featured dissents from as many as three members who felt the Fed should resume a rate-hiking cycle it began in December 2015.
In addition to approving the much-expected increase, the FOMC also indicated a higher rate than projected back in September when it last released the quarterly look ahead. The committee now expects three rate hikes in 2017, two or three in 2018 and three in 2019.
The Federal Open Market Committee last hiked rates in December 2015, raising its target from near-zero to a range of 0.25 to 0.5 percent. That was the first hike in more than nine years. The FOMC took the rate to zero during the financial crisis in 2008.
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