Fed still expects 3 rate hikes this year, but will pick up the pace in 2019

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it sees the federal funds rate at 2.1 percent by the end of 2018, unchanged from its December forecast.

But the central bank raised its 2019 projection, saying it sees the benchmark rate at 2.9 percent. That’s up from the 2.7 percent estimate it published in December.

The Fed also upped its 2020 forecast to 3.4 percent from 3.1 percent.

On Wednesday, central bankers also approved the widely expected quarter-point hike that puts the new benchmark funds rate at a target of 1.5 percent to 1.75 percent. It was the sixth rate increase since the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee began raising rates off near zero in December 2015.

Four times a year Federal Reserve policymakers at the FOMC submit their projections about where short-term interest rates are headed. The results are the central bank’s so-called dot plot — a visual representation of how many members think rates will hit a given level over the short, medium and longer run.