Federal Reserve raises interest rates for first time since 2006

The US Federal Reserve has raised interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.

The United States central bank’s policy-setting committee made the landmark announcement in a policy statement, adopted unanimously on Wednesday.

The benchmark interest rate was hiked by a quarter of a percentage point to between 0.25 percent and 0.50 percent from almost zero.

The Federal Reserve, which has been weighing up the idea since autumn, made the move based on a prediction that the economy is on a path to accelerate in 2016.

 

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