The US Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.

After many delays, on December 16 (early morning of December 17, Vietnam time), the US Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) officially announced its decision to raise the base interest rate for the first time in nearly a decade.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen. Photo: THX/TTXVN.

Speaking at a press conference after the conclusion of a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Fed's policy-making body, Fed Chair Janet Yellen announced that the FOMC had voted to increase the basic interest rate by 0.25%, in two ranges from 0-0.25% and from 0.25-0.5%.

According to Ms. Yellen, the US economy has received many positive signals in most key sectors from industry, real estate, manufacturing to services...

In addition, the unemployment rate has also decreased steadily over the years and is expected to be only 4.7% next year.

The US labor market continued to receive positive signals as businesses in many fields stepped up recruitment in November.

According to statistics released by the US Department of Labor on December 4, in November, the US economy created 211,000 more jobs, higher than economists' forecast of 200,000 jobs.

The data also showed that the number of new jobs in September and October also increased by 35,000 jobs compared to the previous report.

Ms. Yellen added that FOMC officials believe the US economy and financial-stock markets are now "healthy" enough to end the gloomy period after the 2007-2009 recession.

In addition, the Fed also raised its forecast for the country's economic growth in 2016 to 2.4%, a slight increase compared to previous forecasts.

With the above decision, this is the first time the Fed has increased the base interest rate in nearly 8 years.

The symbolic low interest rate of nearly 0% has been maintained by the Fed since late 2008, as a tool to encourage investment and credit to help the US economy escape the recession of 2007-2009.

Immediately after the Fed's announcement, most US stock indexes rose slightly.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 136 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes even rose 1%./.

According to VIETNAM+