The Fed maintains 2017, 2018 rate forecast

Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Janet Yellen, chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it still sees the federal funds rate at 1.4 percent by the end of 2017, unchanged from its March forecast.

The U.S. central bank also maintained its 2018 projection, saying it sees the benchmark rate at 2.1 percent.

On Wednesday, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point.

The targets for appropriate federal funds rates by Federal Open Market Committee participants is plotted in a chart that has come to be known as the “dot plot.”

The chart shows the anonymous interest rate forecasts of Fed officials, and it’s used by the market to determine where the central bank believes rates are going, including its longer-term neutral rate.