The Federal Reserve raised its base rate by 0.75 percentage points (75 basis points) in an effort to contain the worst surge in inflation since the 1980s.

The head of the US central bank, Jerome Powell, said another unusually large rate hike could be appropriate in September if inflationary pressures on the economy do not ease sufficiently by autumn, Voice of America reports.

“The committee is strongly committed to returning inflation to its 2 percent objective,” officials said in their post-meeting statement. “Recent indicators of spending and production have softened. Nonetheless, job gains have been robust in recent months, and the unemployment rate has remained low.”

The committee said the Fed remains very attentive to inflationary risks. Jerome Powell once again said this at a press conference that took place after the publication of the Fed's decision to raise the rate, stating the importance of lowering inflation.

Powell said the Fed is aware of the hardship inflation poses to ordinary Americans, especially those on low incomes, and promised that the Fed would not ease up on efforts to fight inflation until there was "convincing evidence" that the pace price increases began to decline.

This year, inflation jumped to a four-decade high and is more than three times the central bank's target of 2%.

Despite robust job growth, the Fed stressed that "recent spending and production numbers have tumbled," indicating that the aggressive rate hike that began in March has begun to weigh on the economy.

However, Powell said the US economy continues to show resilience.