Hong Kong ups base rate after U.S. Fed interest rate hike

HONG KONG, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced Thursday that the base rate was adjusted upward to 0.75 percent with immediate effect.

The adjustment came as the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point to 0.25 to 0.50 percent.

It is the first time raise of the benchmark interest rate by the U.S. Federal Reserve since 2018.

Following the upward adjustment, 50 basis points above the lower end of the prevailing target range for the U.S. federal funds rate is 0.75 percent, while the average of the five-day moving averages of the overnight and one-month Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rates (HIBORs) is 0.14 percent. The base rate was therefore set at 0.75 percent according to a pre-set formula, the HKMA said.

The base rate is the interest rate forming the foundation upon which the discount rates for repurchase transactions through the discount window are computed.