In a widely anticipated move Wednesday, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate for the third time since the Financial Crisis of 2008.
The fed-funds rate rose by a quarter percentage point, to a range of 0.75% to 1%.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen presents the bank’s current economic projections and provides additional context for policy decisions in Washington today at 2:30 PM EST. Watch the video above.
Experts had predicted that the Fed would raise rates following a strong February jobs report released last Friday. At last month’s meeting, they elected to maintain the current rate.
On March 3rd, Yellen said at The Executives’ Club of Chicago that a rate hike would be “appropriate” if there were no surprises on jobs and inflation.
“We realize that waiting too long to scale back some of our support could potentially require us to raise rates rapidly sometime down the road, which in turn could risk disrupting financial markets and pushing the economy into recession,” Yellen said.
This story has been updated to reflect the Fed’s decision Wednesday.