Federal Reserve Increases Interest Rate, Impacts on Desert Businesses

"We’ve been affected by the interest hikes and how they have affected the prices in our supply chain and cost of goods," Chef Tanya Petrovna said, owner of Chef Tanya’s Kitchen.

Interest rates are up, again.

Wednesday morning, the Federal Reserve raised its interest rate by another three quarters of a percentage point.

Rate hikes at this pace, with matching back to back hikes in two months, hasn’t been seen since the 1980s.

This has affected numerous businesses, especially in the mortgage industry.

"Who’s refinancing right now? You know, not too many people," Lucas Coronel, owner of Hacienda Home Loans Inc., explained. "If you’ve got a three and a quarter interest rate, why would you want to touch that and move it and get a current five and a quarter? So for us, yes, we’re being affected from a refinance standpoint."

But, it’s not just this industry that’s feeling it.

"Well, businesses are being affected," Chef Tanya Petrovna shared.

She says while these hikes are putting a strain on their business, they are trying to keep prices low.

"What we’re going to do for it at this time is really going to try to keep everything steady," she explained. "We, of course, will incrementally increase pricing, but we’re going to try to hold back as much as we can to keep our customers coming and feeling comfortable."

Now all they can do is wait.

"With this fed increase today, we haven’t really seen any movement in interest rates," Coronel continued. "Day of, sometimes there’s no movement, and today that seems to be kind of the case. Hopefully it doesn’t sell off and increase tomorrow or the next day."

"I have to wait and see how my customer base will be affected by their purchases or any kind of loans they’ve taken," Chef Tanya Petrovna said. "It’s really going to be a day by day watch."

The central bank is hoping to slow growth, but not enough to cause a recession.

Chair Jerome Powell says the economy is going in the right direction to reduce inflation.