The quarter-point hike is the sixth such move since summer in an effort to keep a lid on inflation.

The Federal Reserve pushed short-term interest rates higher Wednesday, part of a campaign begun last June and expected to continue well into this year to keep inflation and the economy on an even keel.

Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and his colleagues raised the target for the federal funds rate by one-quarter of a percentage point, to 2.50 percent. It was the sixth such increase since last summer. The rate is the interest that banks charge each other and is the Fed's main lever for influencing economic activity.

In a brief statement released after the Fed's two-day meeting, policy-makers stuck to their gradual approach of raising interest rates. Further increases can be "at a pace that is likely to be measured," according to the statement, similar to one issued at the previous meeting in December.

Economists said there was nothing in the statement to suggest that policy-makers will either speed up or slow down their rate-raising campaign.

The Fed said the economy is growing "at a moderate pace despite the rise in energy prices, and labor market conditions continues to improve gradually." Inflation, the Fed said, remains "well contained."

Economists predict the Fed will raise the funds rate again at its next meeting, in March.

Some economists believe the Fed wants to push up the funds rate to about 3.5 percent this year. Others think the fund rate will end up around 4 percent. Either figure, analysts said, would neither slow nor stimulate economic activity.

Moving the funds rate to 3.5 percent this year would push the prime rate up to 6.5 percent; a funds rate of 4 percent would put the prime rate at 7 percent.

Before the Fed started to push rate up in June, the funds rate was at a 46-year low of 1 percent.

That extraordinarily low rate was used to help shore up the economy, which had struggled to recover from the recession of 2001 and the Sept. 11 attacks. With the economic expansion more deeply rooted, the Fed needs to move the funds rate to a more normal level so all the cheap money does not lay the groundwork for inflation.