The Federal Reserve raised the fed funds rate by 50bps to 4.25%-4.5% during its last monetary policy meeting of 2022, pushing borrowing costs to the highest level since 2007, and in line with market expectations. It was a seventh consecutive rate hike, following four straight three-quarter point increases. Policymakers reinforced that ongoing hikes in the target range will be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2%.
The Fed now expects interest rates to reach 5.1% next year, 4.1% in 2024, and 3.1% in 2025, a higher level than previously indicated. Meanwhile, GDP growth projections were revised higher for this year (0.5% vs 0.2%) but lowered for 2023 (0.5% vs 1.2%) and 2024 (1.6% vs 1.7%). Inflation forecasts were revised higher for 2022 (5.6% vs 5.4%), 2023 (3.1% vs 2.8%) and 2024 (2.5% vs 2.3%).