Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen signaled Wednesday that the Fed is all but certain to raise interest rates this month for the first time in nearly a decade, saying in prepared remarks that gains in the economy and labor market have met the central bank's goals.
Yellen noted that Fed policymakers have said they'll increase its benchmark rate when they've seen "some further improvement in the labor market and were reasonably confident that inflation" would move up to the Fed's annual 2% target over the medium-term.
"I currently judge that U.S. economic growth is likely to be sufficient over the next year or two to result in further improvement in the labor market," Yellen said in the prepared text.