Federal Reserve Raises Interest Rate Charged to Banks, In First Move Since 2008
The Federal Reserve, taking its first step to return lending
to normal after more than two years of extraordinary actions
to prop up the economy, on Thursday raised its discount rate
-- the interest rate it charges on emergency loans to banks
-- by one-quarter percentage point.
The increase, to 0.75 percent from 0.50 percent, takes effect
on Friday.
Officials said the move was not meant to be a broad
tightening of credit. Rather, they said, it was intended to
discourage emergency borrowing when other financing is
available to banks.
The discount rate had been at 0.50 percent since December
2008.
#board-2412
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle
