The Federal Reserve on Friday agreed to a request from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to return unused funds from emergency lending programs.

The Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by 75 basis points for the third consecutive meeting on Wednesday, boosting the target range for the federal funds rate to a range of 3% to 3.25%, in a continuing bid to tamp down inflation.

The Federal Open Market Committee, which concluded its two-day meeting on Wednesday, had previously increased rates by 75 basis points in June and July, following a 50-basis-point hike in May and a 25-basis-point increase in March.

In its accompanying statement, the Federal Open Market Committee said it “anticipates that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate.”

The committee’s median projection for the federal funds rate at the end of the year is now 4.4%, up from the 3.4% projection at the June meeting. The committee’s median projection for the federal funds rate at the end of next year is now 4.6%, up from 3.8% projection in the June meeting.

The FOMC also cited “modest growth in spending and production” and that “job gains have been robust in recent months, and the unemployment rate has remained low.” But the committee also said that inflation “remains elevated, reflecting supply and demand imbalances related to the pandemic, higher food and energy prices, and broader price pressures.”

As it did at the prior meeting, the FOMC commented that the war in Ukraine is “causing tremendous human and economic hardship” and that war-related events are also “creating additional upward pressure on inflation and are weighing on global economic activity.”

The committee added that it is “strongly committed” to returning inflation to its 2% objective.

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