The US Federal Reserve is expected to lift interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point for a third straight time on Wednesday and signal how much further and how fast borrowing costs may need to rise to tame a potentially corrosive outbreak of inflation.

The Wall Street is worried that the rate hikes could go too far in slowing economic growth and push the economy into a recession. Those concerns have been heightened by data showing that the US economy is already slowing and by companies warning about the impact of inflation and supply chain problems to their operations.

Apart from the US, economic contraction was witnessed in Britain as well. Even the Eurozone is still not out of the pandemic woods, and China has just stalled in its track in Q1, weighed down by successive lockdowns of its large cities.