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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, the
central bank of the United States, reaffirmed yesterday (8th) that the pace of interest rate hikes could accelerate, for the second day in a row. The IMF has also advised the Fed to maintain its current high interest rate policy, raising expectations that the pace of rate hikes, which have been slowed somewhat, will pick up again.

Special correspondent Kim Jong-won reports from New York.

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Federal Reserve Chairman
Powell appeared at a House hearing yesterday and today in the Senate, emphasizing that the pace of rate hikes could be accelerated in the same language as yesterday.

[Jerome Powell/Federal Reserve Chairman: If the data shows that we need to tighten faster, we are ready to pick up the pace of rate hikes.]

At the March monetary policy meeting, it has not yet decided how much to raise rates, but it also reaffirmed that the final rate is likely to be higher than previously expected.

That's because indicators that the economy is overheating in a variety of sectors, including the job market, continue to be released, with indicators showing that U.S. private employment growth more than doubled last month compared to the previous month.

The IMF has also advised that the U.S. should continue this high-interest rate policy.

[Kristalina Georgieva / IMF President: The Fed should continue to maintain its current policy. Chairman Powell should continue to rely on data to keep inflation low, as he has done so far. I expect the current high interest rate policy to last a long time throughout the year.]

Although the Fed, which raised interest rates steeply between the so-called big step and the giant step, began to adjust its pace at its January monetary policy meeting by raising rates by only 3.2 percentage points, the expectation is that it will return to the big step of raising 1.0 percentage points again.

(Video Interview: Lee Sang-wook, Video Editing: Kim Jin-won)