The US Federal Reserve has raised interest rates for a sixth straight time.
The unanimous decision by the US central bank's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee moves the target for the benchmark federal funds rate - which affects credit costs throughout the economy - to 2.5 per cent.
In a statement last night after a two-day meeting, Fed officials retained an assessment that economic risks were balanced between slower growth and rising prices and said they thought they could keep raising rates at a "measured" pace.
Signalling the rate-rise cycle will continue, the Fed repeated that monetary policy "remains accommodative," which analysts said almost certainly means another rate rise at the next FOMC meeting on March 22nd.
The Fed action comes two weeks before Fed Chairman Mr Alan Greenspan's testimony on the economy on February 16-17th to Senate and US House of Representatives panels.