Chinese official think tank researcher says disruption from U.S. rate hike likely limited

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's decision to raise benchmark interest rates is unlikely to cause major disruption to the world economy because it was widely expected, a senior researcher an official Chinese think tank said Thursday.

The comments by Zeng Gang, director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences banking research division, were cited in an article on the website of the official People's Daily newspaper Thursday morning.

On Wednesday, the U.S. central bank decided to raise benchmark rates for the first time since the global financial crisis, in a decision broadly telegraphed over the past several weeks.

(Reporting By Nathaniel Taplin; Editing by Sam Holmes)