Fed Chair Yellen sees rate hike ‘later this year’

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at near zero on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila), but Chair Janet Yellen said the first hike in nine years would likely come “later this year.”

After a two-day policy meeting, the US central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) again demurred on an increase in the federal funds rate, even as the FOMC saw the economy rebounding from the contraction in the first quarter.