US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday.
It would be appropriate to raise key interest rates in the United States during the month of March in an effort to curb inflation, which has reached its highest level in 40 years.
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During testimony to Congress, Powell added that the central bank “recognizes that high inflation poses great hardship.
Especially on those least able to meet the high costs of necessities, such as food, housing and passenger transportation.”
“Inflation increased sharply last year and is now well above our long-term target of 2 percent,” he said.
“We anticipate that it will be appropriate to raise the target range for the federal funds rate at our meeting later this month,” he added.
And since March 2020, the US central bank has maintained a historically low level of interest rates in the range of zero-0.25%.
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In addition to a broad program to buy bonds at a rate of 120 billion dollars per month to help the largest economy in the world cope with the repercussions of the Corona pandemic.
And Powell added to Congress that the US economy grew by 5.5 percent in 2021.
This reflects progress in vaccinations against the virus, reopening the economy, and support for fiscal and monetary policy.
He stated that 6.7 million jobs were created in 2021, and the unemployment rate fell significantly to 4 percent in last January.
