WASHINGTON: Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, stated that if necessary, the central bank will raise the federal funds rate by more than 25 basis points at its policy meetings to combat inflation.

"The labour market is very strong, and inflation is far too high," Powell said in prepared remarks for the National Association for Business Economics' (NABE) annual economic policy conference in Washington, D.C. "There is an evident need to move quickly to return monetary policy to a more neutral position, and subsequently to more restrictive levels if that is required to restore price stability," he said.

The Federal Reserve hiked its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point last week, from near zero to a range of 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent. This was the first rate hike since 2018 and a significant step toward abandoning the ultra-loose monetary policies established at the outbreak's inception.

Most officials expect the federal funds rate to climb to 1.9 percent by the end of this year and to roughly 2.8 percent by the end of 2023, according to the central bank's quarterly economic estimates announced last week. This translates to a total of seven quarter-point rate hikes this year and three or four more next year.

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