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 Thepped up its fight against a 40-year high in US inflation on Wednesday, announcing its fourth consecutive three-quarters of a percentage point hike in interest rates but signaling the pace of increases may soon slow.

With the cost of living crisis  Fed officials have now imposed six rate rises in a row, the sharpest increases in interest rates since the 1980s, when inflation touched 14% and rates rose to nearly 20%.

The Fed chair, Jerome Powell, said there were “no grounds for complacency” but acknowledged that officials were considering the pace of rate rises as they assess their impact on the wider economy. “Even so, we still have some ways to go. And incoming data since our last meeting suggests that the ultimate level of interest rates will be higher than previously expected,” he said.

The Fed’s latest increase brings the federal funds rate – which acts as a benchmark for everything including business loans, credit card and mortgage rates – to between 3.75% and 4% after sitting at 0% for more than a year during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I’m pleased that we have moved as fast as we have. I don’t think we’ve overtightened,” said Powell. He said the Fed would, at some point, slow the pace of rate rises but warned it was “very premature to think about pausing”.

The central bank does not expect inflation or interest rates to reach the levels seen in the 80s. Powell has indicated that the Fed expects rates will reach 4.4% by the end of the year and start coming down until 2024. Fed officials had expected inflation to decline this year.

But inflation – which the Fed initially dismissed as “transitory” – remains stubbornly high. In September, the costs of goods and services werecompared to a year ago, well above the Fed’s target inflation rate of 2%.

Powell said the chances of the  achieving a “soft landing” and avoiding recession as it fights off inflation had “narrowed”. “We’ve always said it was going to be difficult. I think to the extent rates have to go higher and stay higher for longer, it becomes harder to see the path,” he said.