The Federal Reserve has hiked interest rates by another quarter of a percentage point to a range of 4.75% to 5%, increasing the odds that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would follow suit next month.

The US central bank feels that the fight against price rises is important even as the US faces its worst banking crisis since 2008.

In a statement, the Fed said the impact of the banking crisis was “uncertain” but inflation “remains elevated.

This is the Fed’s ninth consecutive rate rise and the highest rate since 2007. Interest rates a year ago were close to zero.

The latest increase, however, is less than the half-point increase analysts had expected before a series of bank collapses shook global markets.

While the Fed had considered pausing rates before the announcement, it had concluded that the banking crisis was under control and that more rate rises were needed to bring down inflation.

“We are committed to restoring price stability and all of the evidence says that the public has confidence that we will do so,” Fed chair Jerome Powell said. “It’s important that we sustain that confidence with our actions as well as our words.”

Earlier this month, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed after its investments in long-term securities fell in value as interest rates rose. Those losses make depositors jittery and led to a run on the bank.

Powell called SVB an “outlier” that had “failed badly”. He said the US banking system remained strong but added “it is clear we do need to strengthen supervision and regulation”.

After SVB’s collapse, New York’s Signature Bank faced a similar crisis as worried depositors pulled their funds. Last weekend, UBS, backed by Swiss authorities, bought Credit Suisse to prevent a contagion effect. Big banks stepped in to prop up First Republic, another mid-sized US bank whose share price has collapsed as depositors have fled.

Inflation remains a global issue and Powell has repeatedly said that it is the central bank’s top priority. Prices were 6% higher in February than they were a year ago. Though this is lower than the 9.1% annual rate of inflation recorded last June, it is still a long way from the Fed’s target of 2%.

The Fed’s latest statement did hint that its rapid series of rate rises may be drawing to a close, the Guardian reported. Officials dropped a phrase used in their previous eight statements that said the committee anticipated “ongoing increases” in rates would be appropriate and replaced it with: “The committee anticipates that some additional policy firming may be appropriate.”