The U.S. Federal Reserve has slowed the pace of prime rate hikes, and Reuters told about Russian oil sold to India at or below cost – these and other important news for Thursday morning, December 15, in our daily review.

The U.S. Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee raised its benchmark rate range by 50 basis points, to 4.25-4.5% per annum. This is the highest level since 2007, Bloomberg notes. The Fed expects that further rate hikes will be needed to bring inflation back to the 2% target over time, the report said. Fed officials forecast the rate will exceed 5% in 2023, according to a forecast released Dec. 14.

India, which has become a major consumer of Russia’s Urals crude, bought it in December 2022 at prices well below the $60 barrel ceiling price set by the G7 and the European Union. Russian oil was sold at deep discounts and even below cost, Reuters reports, citing market participants.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) founder and CEO Ilon Musk this week sold 22 million shares of the electric car maker for $3.58 billion, Reuters reports, citing Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) data disclosed on Wednesday, December 14. This is Musk’s second series of stock sales since he bought Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) for $44 billion in October. The previous sale of about $4 billion came days after he closed the deal.

The Association for the Development of Financial Literacy sent a letter to the Central Bank with proposals to expand the scope of the institution of financial commissioner to property claims of retail investors to professional participants of the financial market. The association believes that in this case unqualified investors will be able to settle disputes with brokers without going to court, writes “Kommersant” with reference to the appeal to the Central Bank.

The Canadian government has decided to cancel the exemption from sanctions against the Russian oil and gas industry for turbines of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. About it writes Bloomberg with reference to a senior government official Justin Trudeau.