Jerome Powell, nominee to be chairman of the Federal Reserve, waits to testify at his Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing in Hart Building on November 28, 2017.

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it sees the federal funds rate at 2.4 percent by the end of 2018, unchanged from its June forecast.

The central bank also left its 2019 projection unchanged at 3.1 percent.

Those translate to another rate hike expected before the end of the year and three in 2019.

Four times a year Federal Reserve policymakers at the FOMC submit their projections about where short-term interest rates are headed. The results are the central bank's so-called dot plot — a visual representation of how many members think rates will hit a given level over the short, medium and longer run.

As widely expected, the Federal Open Market Committee raised the federal funds rate 25 basis points to a range between 2 percent and 2.25 percent.