The Federal Reserve ended its two-day meeting on Wednesday by flagging an accelerated timeframe for raising interest rates and acknowledging “notably” higher expectations for this year’s inflation. While the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) made no moves to cut back on the Fed’s crisis support measures for the economy—near zero interest rates and around $120 billion in monthly asset purchases—central bank officials signaled in their forward guidance “dot-plot” that rate hikes could come sooner than previously expected. Fed officials now see two rate hikes by the end of 2023, according to median estimates of the dot plot, which moves the Fed’s first projected rate increases up from 2024. Signaling a sooner-than-expected liftoff in rates, 13 of 18 policymakers expected rates to rise in 2023, with 11 of them seeing two quarter-percentage-point rate increases. Seven of the officials see rates moving higher as soon as 2022, opening the possibility of even more …