Federal Reserve

The Fed maintains 2017, 2018 rate forecast

Gross: Fed statement less hawkish than some had feared
VIDEO3:4503:45
Gross: Fed statement less hawkish than some had feared

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it still sees the federal funds rate at 1.4 percent by the end of 2017, unchanged from its December forecast.

The U.S. central bank's also maintained its 2018 projection, saying it sees the benchmark rate at 2.1 percent.

On Wednesday, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point, a move already baked into the market.

The targets for appropriate federal funds rates by Federal Open Market Committee participants is plotted in a chart that has come to be known as the "dot plot."

The chart shows the anonymous interest rate forecasts of Fed officials, and it's used by the market to determine where the central bank believes rates are going, including its longer-term neutral rate.

Here are the Fed's latest March targets, released in Wednesday's statement:

This is how it looked in December