US Federal Reserve to raise the federal funds rate

&to=http:// english.pravda.ru/main/18/89/358/14730_dollar.html ' target=_blank>Federal Reserve policymakers lifted a key short-term interest rate as expected, by a quarter-point to 2.50 percent, while maintaining a posture that suggests more "measured" rate hikes.

The Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously to raise the federal funds rate in the sixth consecutive quarter-point increase from the &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/comp/2003/03/06/44103.html ' target=_blank>central bank. But the panel said that the federal funds rate -- the main rate used for interbank loans -- remains stimulative, or "accommodative," in the language of economists, writes the Turkish Press.