The Federal Reserve is expected to announce its largest interest rate hike in 28 years on Wednesday in an attempt to battle the nation's continuing surge in inflation. Financial experts have said the key to this strategy is supply and demand.

The Federal Reserve—the nation's central bank, commonly called "the Fed"—will likely increase interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, CNBC reported Wednesday. The move comes after the government released new numbers for the consumer price index that showed annual inflation moderated in April. However, the index increased at an annual rate of 8.3 percent, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics said last Friday that inflation rose 8.6 percent from a year ago, the fastest increase since 1981.

The Fed's plan, which will reportedly be announced by Chairman Jerome Powell, is to raise short-term interest rates to battle inflation. When discussing rising inflation, many experts point to the positive growth seen in the economy: More people have more money, but there are too few goods to buy. This results in a rise in prices.

For a better explanation of why the Fed is raising interest rates, The New York Times consulted with two experts for a story the newspaper ran on Tuesday. One was Kathy Jones, the chief fixed-income strategist at the Schwab Center for Financial Research, and the other was Edmund Phelps, a Columbia University economist. They explained that the Fed is seeking to restore a balance in supply and demand with an increase in interest rates by making it more expensive to borrow money.

In other words, the Fed's hope is that people will be discouraged from spending their money because of higher interest rates, which will decrease demand and eventually lower inflation.

One example discussed in the Times was the recent rise in mortgage rates. While this makes it more expensive to buy a house, inflation may not be affected in the short term because of the high demand for houses, a result of the coronavirus pandemic. While the Fed's interest rate increase can't address a housing shortage, higher rates could eventually address the relationship between supply and demand in a year or more, because fewer people will be taking on new mortgages.

"By raising rates, the Fed is trying to make you slow down your spending. That happens when the cost of money goes up for a car loan or mortgage or something else you want to spend money on," Jones told the Times. "The higher cost of money reduces your purchasing power—what you can afford to buy—and the Fed is effectively making you buy less. And that should bring down inflation."

Phelps said the current economic situation is a result of "aggregate demand exceeding supply, and that's causing prices to rise." Therefore, he said, the Fed is trying to "clamp down on demand" by raising interest rates.

Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, told CNBC that he thinks the interest rate hike may not be enough to address inflation.

"Can the Fed bring down inflation on their own? I think the answer is 'no,'" Baird told the business news outlet. "They certainly can help rein in the demand side by higher interest rates. But it's not going to unload container ships, it's not going to reopen production capacity in China, it's not going to hire the long-haul truckers we need to get things across the country."

However, Baird noted that "the Fed has been reasonably successful in convincing markets that they have their eye on the ball and long-term inflation expectations have been held in check."

He added, "As we look forward, that will continue to be the primary focus. It's something that we're watching very closely, to make sure that investors don't lose faith in [the central bank's] ability to keep a lid on long-term inflation."

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