The Fed just did something it has never done before
The Fed pushed up their expectations for economic growth, dropped their outlook for the unemployment rate ever so slightly, and increased their expected number of rate hikes in 2017 to three from two.
Additionally, the Fed did something it's never done: raise its long-term interest rate outlook.
The median longer-term projection for interest rates is the Fed's estimate of where interest rates will be further than 4 years out from the current year. For the first time since its inception five years ago, the Fed actually increased their long-term projection.
Since the first time the Fed release this projection in 2012, it has been slowly revised down as inflation and growth have undershot expectations. Now, with the Fed seeing stronger inflation coming into the economy and the recent boost to economic growth, the projection for interest rates finally came up.
