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Business Matters: US Interest Rates Rise for First Time Since 2006

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US Interest Rates Rise For First Time Since 2006

17/12/2015 GMT

US Interest Rates Rise for First Time Since 2006

BBC World Service - Business Matters, US Interest Rates Rise for First Time Since 2006

Is the financial crisis of 2008 finally over? Plus currency liberalisation in Argentina.

Just 0.25% - but it is the first US interest rate rise since 2006. Is the crisis of 2008 is finally over? Plus, a lurch into currency liberalisation in Argentina.

It's been nine years, five months and 17 days since the US Federal Reserve last raised interest rates, but on Wednesday they decided to raise the range of rates banks offer to lend to each other overnight by 0.25%. Bruce Rolph, head of research at Citi Australia in Sydney, explains the decision's repercussions.

Many Asian economies have benefited from the influx of cheap money that flooded their markets with US interest rates at record lows. The BBC's Asia Business Correspondent Karishma Vaswani reports on concerns that higher rates will hit Asian businesses and families badly. 

Plus, Argentina moves to liberalise the economy by relaxing currency controls, allowing increased access to US dollars. The BBC's Daniel Gallas talks about the implications.

And why do political winners live shorter lives on average, than political losers?     

Roger Hearing is joined by two guests on opposite sides of the Pacific - Simon Littlewood, President at ACG Global, from Singapore, and Shikha Dalmia, senior policy analyst at the libertarian think tank Reason Foundation, from Ann Arbor in Michigan.

(Photo: Fed lifts rock bottom US interest rate after seven years. Credit: European Photopress Agency)

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