Washington | The Federal Reserve ramped up its attack on rapid inflation on Wednesday (Thursday AEST), approving its biggest interest rate increase since 2000, detailing a plan to shrink its massive bond holdings and signalling it will continue working to cool the economy as it tries to tamp down the fastest price increases in four decades.

As expected, the US central bank’s policymaking Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously to increase the Fed funds rate to a range of 0.75 per cent to 1 per cent. The move follows a quarter point increase in March that ended two years of near-zero rates.