Si j'puis me permettre en complément du post de Nakara:
Extrait Reuters: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=fundLaunches&storyID=2005-12-13T192033Z_01_YUE872069_RTRUKOC_0_US-ECONOMY-FED.xml
Fed lifts rates to 4.25 pct
Tue Dec 13, 2005 2:20 PM ETWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve on Tuesday lifted U.S. interest rates for a 13th straight time and signaled that while it is not yet done raising rates, its 1-1/2 year credit-tightening campaign has entered a final stage.
As widely expected, the U.S. central bank's rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously to lift the benchmark federal funds rate by a quarter-percentage point to 4.25 percent, the highest level since April 2001.
In a statement announcing its action, the Fed dropped its long-standing characterization of policy as accommodative, or stimulative -- a recognition rates have risen to a more-normal level from a 1958 low of 1 percent hit in mid-2003, during the tepid economic recovery.
But the Fed also repeated an expectation that it would likely need to push rates up further at a "measured" pace to keep inflation at bay, suggesting at least one more quarter-point hike ahead.