Tokyo — Asian stocks edged higher on Thursday after the Federal Reserve delivered a much-anticipated interest rate increase but flagged caution about inflation, tempering expectations for future tightening, which weighed on the dollar and Treasury yields. China’s central bank also raised rates, although marginally. While Chinese shares were slightly lower, the wider impact was limited. As widely expected, the Fed raised rates for the third time this year on Wednesday while sticking to its projection for three rate increases next year. But the policy tightening was accompanied by concern about low inflation, toning down the expectation for policy tightening in 2018. The Fed projected inflation to remain shy of its goal for another year, giving policy makers little reason to accelerate the expected pace of rate increases. "The key takeaway from the Fed meeting was the degree of concern shown towards low inflation, which likely led to two dissenting votes," said Junichi Ishikawa, senio...
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