US Fed raises interest rates

Washington, June 15: US Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised the benchmark interest rates for the fourth time since December 2015 and unveiled plan to start trimming its balance sheet.

"In view of realised and expected labour market conditions and inflation, the (Federal Open Market) Committee decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to 1 to 1.25 per cent," Xinhua quoted Fed as saying after concluding its two-day monetary policy meeting.

The central bank acknowledged the continuous progress in labour market while expressed their concerns over weak inflation.

Fed officials lowered their forecast for unemployment rate for 2017 down to 4.3 per cent, compared to 4.5 per cent projection made in March, while their forecast for inflation rate in 2017 was revised down to 1.6 per cent from their forecast of 1.9 per cent in March.