ATLANTA — In the last couple of hours, officials with the Federal Reserve announced they would be increasing the national interest rate by a quarter point.
Despite the Federal Reserve's move Wednesday, financial experts told 11Alive that the average consumer shouldn't worry too much.
"It may raise your credit card interest rate a little bit. It's probably not going to move longer-term rates very much at all," explained Raymond Hill, a professor at Emory University's Goizueta Business School.
Experts said while the impact shouldn't be too significant, it will still affect consumers' borrowing costs, which include credit card, mortgage, and auto loan rates.
"Increasing rates means they have a little bit less cushion, so it's less about the size of the house, it's more about how much cushion they have in their bank account as far as savings and other things, just in case other things happen," explained Michael Skordeles, Head of U.S. Economics at Truist Advisory Services.
This latest rate hike marks the 9th time the Central Bank has raised the rate over the last year to combat inflation. All of this happening is what some are calling a banking crisis, which experts said remains the real concern.
"Maybe this banking you know, I won't say crisis, but banking bubble may have its own effect in slowing down the economy," Hill added.