BUSINESS MEMO: INTEREST RATES

Expressing concern inflation could spoil the country's good economic times, the Federal Reserve on Tuesday nudged interest rates up for the fifth time since last June.

Wall Street took the increase in stride, but economists warned borrowers to expect even higher interest rates in the months ahead as the central bank keeps struggling to cool down the red-hot economy.

As with the previous Federal Reserve increases, the nation's major commercial banks followed suit by boosting their prime lending rate, the benchmark for millions of consumer and business loans, by a quarter point to 9 percent, the highest level in five years.