Half-point rate hike 'on the table' at May Fed meeting: Powell

WASHINGTON, April 22 (AFP) : The Federal Reserve may opt to hike interest rates by half a percentage point at its policy meeting next month in a bid to battle record US inflation, the central bank's Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday.
"It is appropriate, in my view, to be moving a little more quickly. And I also think there's something in the idea of front-end loading whatever accommodation one thinks is appropriate," Powell said during a debate on the global economy hosted by the International Monetary Fund on the sidelines of its spring meetings.
"I would say that 50 basis points will be on the table for the May meeting."
US prices have risen over the past year at a rate not seen in four decades, sending the central bank scrambling to respond.