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Economy

Fed hikes rates by 0.25 percentage points, with inflation easing

The central bank plans to slow the pace of its fight while keeping pressure on the economy — in an attempt to avert a bad recession

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Updated February 1, 2023 at 3:28 p.m. EST|Published February 1, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EST
The Federal Reserve finished two days of meetings at its Washington headquarters on Wednesday. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
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The Federal Reserve is not letting up on its inflation fight, hiking interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, while signaling that it will continue to increase borrowing costs even at the risk of lost jobs.

The central bank’s move was the eighth consecutive hike, but the smallest since last March, as Fed officials spent the past year scrambling to get control of inflation that soared to 40-year highs.