The Federal Reserve is likely to announce a hike in key interest rates at the end of its two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FMOC) meeting Wednesday afternoon. The FOMC is the body within the Fed that decides monetary policy, including interest rates. Further hikes are expected at committee meetings scheduled in September, November, and December.

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The press conference is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, July 27, 2022.

Fed chair Jerome Powell’s speech will be streamed live on Youtube.

As the US fights 40-year high inflation, the Federal Reserve is continuing its efforts to control prices by raising interest rates. According to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) released this month, inflation rose 9.1% in June compared with the same period last month, marking the largest increase since November 1981.

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The Fed in June hiked interest rates by 0.75 percentage points to a range of 1.5% to 1.75%, the biggest hike since 1994. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has made it apparent Fed is prepared to risk an economic slowdown to combat inflation. As a result, the central bank will continue to raise interest rates until they can clearly say that the rate is returning to the 2% target.

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The FOMC is likely to raise the benchmark borrowing rates by three-quarters of a percentage point on Wednesday as a part of its strategy to temper demand and alleviate pricing pressures on American individuals and companies.

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The second consecutive 75 bps Fed interest rate would increase the federal funds rate range between 2.25% and 2.5%. The FOMC is also expected to stick to its plan to allow up to $30 billion in Treasury securities and $17.5 billion in agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) to mature and roll off its monthly balance sheet.

From September, the Fed plans to ramp its monthly roll-off to $60 billion in Treasurys and $35 billion in MBS per month.