Fed confirms aggressive inflation mandate with biggest interest rate hike since 1994

Hints at further big hikes to come

The Federal Reserve has made its biggest interest rate hike in almost 30 years, as it battles to tackle the rising levels of inflation, which is at a four-decade high of 8.6%.

The central bank increased rates by 0.75 percentage points, to range between 1.5% and 1.75%. Although this is a big one time jump, the overall rate is still low comparative to historic levels. At the Fed's press conference chair Jerome Powell acknowledged that this hike was a set away from recent history, calling it an "unusually large one" and that he "did not expect moves of this kind to be common". However, given the generational high inflation the US is experiencing, it is expected the Fed would be maintaining this aggressive approach for at least one more round, as Powell said a ...