Fed Expected to Raise Rates Today

Washington, August, 10–The Federal Reserve is scheduled to meet and its expected to hike interest rates by one-quarter of one percent.

That would take the benchmark federal funds rate up to one and a-half percent.

The central bank began raising rates in late June.

The Fed’s Beige Book economic round-up found growth had cooled in June and July, what Chairman Alan Greenspan has called a “soft patch.” That was underscored Friday when the Labor Department reported weaker-than-expected jobs creation in July.

Nevertheless, analysts say the Fed would like to get rates back to neutral, or at a level where they are neither adding nor subtracting from economic growth.

That level is seen considerably higher than where rates now stand.