ECONOMY

Photo Credit: AP

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates to a 22-year high this week -- a milestone that carries major implications for the finances of everyday people, experts told ABC News.

The move escalated an aggressive series of rate hikes that has helped dramatically reduce inflation from a peak last summer.

But the historically high interest rates are bad news for borrowers, who will face even higher costs for things like car loans to credit card debt to mortgages.

The high interest rates do deliver benefits for savers, however, who stand to gain from an uptick in the interest yielded by accounts held at banks as well as bonds and high-yield savings accounts.

Photo Credit:AP

The Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate Wednesday for the 11th time in 17 months as part of its ongoing drive to curb inflation. But it provided little guidance about when — or whether — it might hike rates again.

Wednesday’s move raised the Fed’s benchmark short-term rate from roughly 5.1% to 5.3% — its highest level since 2001. Coming on top of its previous hikes, the Fed’s latest action could lead to further increases in the costs of mortgages,auto loans, credit cards and business borrowing.

Photo Credit: Jacquelyn Martin

When Chair Jerome Powell and other Federal Reserve officials gather this week for their latest decision on interest rates, they will do so on the cusp of achieving an elusive “soft landing” — the feat of curbing inflation without causing a deep recession.

After the Fed began aggressively raising borrowing costs early last year, most economists predicted it would send the economy crashing as consumers cut spending and businesses slashed jobs and expansion plans.

Photo Credit: David Zalubowski

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in June to the slowest pace since January, as a near-historic low number of homes for sale and rising mortgage rates kept many would-be homebuyers on the sidelines. The national median sales price fell on an annual basis for the fifth month in a row, though fierce competition led to about one-third of homes selling for more than their list price.

Existing home sales fell 3.3% last month from May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.16 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That’s slightly below what economists were expecting, according to FactSet, and marks the slowest sales pace since January.

Photo Credit:AP

Italy’s culture and tourism ministers have vowed to find and punish a tourist who was filmed carving his name and that of his apparent girlfriend in the wall of the Colosseum in Rome, a crime that resulted in hefty fines in the past.

The message reading “Ivan+Haley 23” appeared on the Colosseum at a time when Romans already were complaining about hordes of tourists flooding the Eternal City in record numbers this season.