The Federal Reserve Board of the United States ended its two-day monetary policy meeting on the 1st and announced to raise the target range of the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 4.5% to 4.75%. Since March 2022, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates by 450 basis points. This rate increase is the smallest since March 2022. The Federal Reserve said in a statement issued on the same day that recent indicators showed the average temperature and growth of expenditure and production, strong employment growth, and easing inflation, but still at a high level. In order to support the employment maximization and the long-term inflation target of 2%, the Federal Reserve decided to raise the interest rate by 25 basis points, and believed that it would be "appropriate" to continue to raise the target range of the federal funds interest rate, so as to make the monetary policy position sufficiently restrictive. At the same time, the Federal Reserve will continue to reduce its holdings of government bonds, institutional debt and institutional mortgage-backed securities. The Federal Reserve reiterated that when determining the rate increase in the future, it will take into account the cumulative tightening effect of monetary policy, the lagging effect of monetary policy on economic activity and inflation, and the development of economic and financial markets. At the press conference held after the meeting, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said that slowing down the rate of interest rate increase would better enable the Federal Reserve to assess whether the economy is moving towards its goal, so as to determine the rate increase required to achieve a sufficiently restrictive monetary policy position in the future. So far, the inflation level in the United States is still too high, and the Federal Reserve also needs more evidence to be sure that inflation is on the track of continuous decline. In order to restore the inflation rate to 2%, it will be appropriate for the Federal Reserve to continue to raise interest rates. (Xinhua News Agency)