MOSCOW, February 1. /TASS/. The US Federal Reserve System acting as the national central bank has increased the base interest rate by 25 basis points to the level of 4.5-4.75% per annum, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) said Wednesday after the meeting.

"The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2% over the longer run. In support of these goals, the Committee decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to 4-1/2 to 4-3/4%," it said.

"The Committee anticipates that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2% over time," FOMC added.

The next meeting of the regulator will be held on March 2022 of this year and will be accompanied by updated macro-forecasts.