Federal Reserve raises rates

The Federal Reserve raised borrowing costs for the fourth time this year, looking through a stock-market selloff and defying pressure to hold off from President Donald Trump, while dialing back projections for interest rates and economic growth in 2019.

Chairman Jerome Powell, speaking at a press conference after the decision on Wednesday, stressed that policy was not on a preset course.

“There’s significant uncertainty about the — both the path and the ultimate destination of any further rate increases,” Powell told reporters. “Inflation has still remained just a touch below two percent. So I do think that gives the committee the ability to be patient in moving forward.”

Powell and his colleagues said “economic activity has been rising at a strong rate,’’ according to a statement following the two-day meeting in Washington. While officials said risks to their outlook “are roughly balanced,’’ they flagged threats from a softening world economy.

The Federal Open Market Committee “will continue to monitor global economic and financial developments and assess their implications for the economic outlook,” the statement said. The 10-0 decision lifted the federal funds rate target to a range of 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent.

The quarter-point hike came after Trump assailed the Fed on Twitter for two straight days, urging it to hold rates steady in the most public assault on its political independence in decades. Investors are also fretting over the economy, with the S&P 500 Index falling significantly in recent weeks.

Answering questions during the press conference, Powell said political considerations play no role in Fed policy making. “We’re going to do our jobs the way we’ve always done them,” he said when asked about White House pressure. The Fed will do its analysis and “nothing will cause us to deviate from that,” he added.

Officials also altered key language in their statement, saying the FOMC “judges that some further gradual increases” in rates will likely be needed, a shift from previous language saying the FOMC “expects that further gradual increases” would be required.