WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it is raising its benchmark interest rate, putting downward pressure on job creation in order to address long-term concerns about inflation and financial stability.

The central banks Federal Open Market Committee decided to raise the target federal funds rate -- or the interest the Fed sets for banks to lend to one another overnight -- one-quarter of a percentage point to a range of 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent.

Fed officials expressed confidence that the job market is finally growing enough that it will soon put upward pressure on prices.

"The Committee judges that there has been considerable improvement in labor market conditions this year, and it is reasonably confident that inflation will rise, over the medium term, to its 2 percent objective," the FOMC said in its official statement .

Speaking at a press conference after the announcement, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen said that if the Fed were to wait much longer, we would likely end up having to tighten policy relatively abruptly at some point to keep the economy from overheating and inflation from significantly overshooting our objective. Raising the interest rate abruptly, Yellen said, would increase the risk of pushing the economy back into recession.

Yellen also alluded to fears that keeping the key interest rate at or near zero would deprive the Fed of the ability to respond to "adverse shock" in the economy by cutting interest rates further.

It would be nice to have a buffer, in terms of having raised the federal funds rate, to a certain extent to give us some meaningful scope to respond to a downward turn, Yellen added. That is an important consideration for the committee.

The federal funds rate is used as a benchmark for interest rates on virtually all credit, including home mortgages, automobile loans and student loans, giving it far-reaching influence over the economy.

The Fed lowers the federal funds rate to boost employment by reducing borrowing costs. It raises rates to slow job market growth, when it believes the country is at or near what it calls full employment -- the level of job creation the economy can tolerate without stoking excessive price inflation.

It's a testament to the depth of the Great Recession and fragility of the recovery that until Wednesday, the federal funds rate had remained at zero to 0.25 percent since December 2008.

Speaking at a press conference after the announcement of the interest rate hike, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen said that if the Fed were to wait much longer, we would likely end up having to tighten policy relatively abruptly at some point to keep the economy from overheating and inflation from significantly overshooting our objective. Raising the interest rate abruptly, Yellen said, would increase the risk of pushing the economy back into recession.

Yellen also alluded to fears that keeping the key interest rate at or near zero would deprive the Fed of the ability to respond to "adverse shock" in the economy by cutting interest rates further.

It would be nice to have a buffer, in terms of having raised the federal funds rate, to a certain extent to give us some meaningful scope to respond to a downward turn, Yellen added. That is an important consideration for the committee.

The European Central Bank, by contrast, continues to escalate its monetary stimulus efforts , leading some to worry that the dollar could appreciate in value too much relative to the euro, hurting U.S. manufacturing and creating other risks for the global economy.

Nonetheless, the Feds initial quarter-point increase is in itself unlikely to have a major impact. And the widely anticipated move will not come as a shock to investors, who have already priced it into their calculations. But if Wednesday's rate hike lays the groundwork for a series of future increases, it would have much more significant implications for the economy.

The Feds FOMC indicated that it will continue to exercise caution. It did not commit to raising rates consistently, saying instead that it would monitor actual and expected progress toward its inflation goal before deciding to raise rates once again.

The Fed is really trying hard to move as slowly as possible so the economy has time to absorb those movements without it having a big economic impact, said Tara Sinclair, chief economist at the job search website Indeed.com. They are not putting on the brakes, just giving less gas.

The central bank can point to steady job growth to justify its decision. The economy has, on average, created 237,000 jobs per month in the past 12 months, bringing the official unemployment rate down to 5 percent.

Yellen rejected the notion that the economic expansion is due to expire because it has already lasted as long as many previous boom cycles.

"I think its a myth that expansions die of old age, Yellen said. The fact that this has been quite a long expansion doesnt lead me to believe that its days are numbered."

The failure of job market growth to boost inflation more significantly, however, has prompted some economists to counsel the Fed against raising rates . The price of consumer goods and services, excluding the more volatile costs of food and energy, rose 1.3 percent in the 12 months ending in October -- well below the Feds 2 percent target.

Josh Bivens, who studies Federal Reserve policy for the progressive Economic Policy Institute, called an interest rate hike a mistake in remarks at a Dec. 1 congressional briefing for that very reason.