|
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Federal Reserve may finally be ready to halt its two-year campaign to raise interest rates, but with soaring energy prices threatening to make inflation worse any pause may be temporary.
The central bank has not missed a chance to boost interest rates since it started the current credit tightening campaign in June 2004, the longest stretch of Fed rate hikes in recent history.
It has nudged the federal funds rate up by a quarter-point at each of 17 consecutive meetings, going from a 46-year low of 1 percent to the current level of 5.25 percent.
|