Federal Reserve officials, rattled by persistent inflation and criticism that they're behind the curve, have pivoted toward an even more aggressive plan of interest-rate hikes than they signaled earlier this month to ensure price increases cool.

In the days after the March 15 to 16 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues shifted from a longstanding preference for slow and gradual interest-rate increases to front-loading policy with a half-point hike on the table in May and more to come.

The war in Ukraine initially made them cautious, with officials backing a quarter-point increase this month as they raised rates from near zero. But investors took the hike in stride and the Fed quickly became more concerned that the surge in food and energy prices caused by the war would entrench inflation—and expectations—at unacceptably high levels.