Last night the US Federal reserve committee voted unanimously in favour of raising the US interest rate to 0.25%. This increase marks the first US interest rate rise in nearly a decade, ushering in a new era of global policy divergence between developed economies. The world’s largest economy indicated it was optimistic about growth, employment and inflation prospects in 2016. The 0.25% increase in the US base rate was a reflection of that optimism. Global markets have seen this as a positive indicator with the decision providing investors with more clarity on the overall direction the US is taking, this risk on sentiment caused broad rallies across global equity indexes. Off the back of the news the US dollar rallied 0.9% against a basket of its peers causing the PBoC to lower the daily fix they have against the US dollar.