The U.S. Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, its second rate hike this year. 

The U.S. Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday increased the benchmark lending rate to a range of one-point-75 percent to two percent.
  
The widely anticipated hike is the second this year, after the central bank hiked the rates by a quarter of a percentage point in March.

Analysts are projecting the Federal Reserve will increase the rates again in September.