The U.S. Federal Open Market Committee decided late on Wednesday to keep its key interest rate at a record low near zero and repeated its pledge to maintain interest rates at historic lows for an extended period.
"To promote the ongoing economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with its mandate, the Committee decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to a quarter percent," the committee said in a statement.
The U.S. federal funds rate, at which banks lend their balances at the Federal Reserve to each other, has been between zero and 0.25 percent since December 2008 in an effort to stimulate economic growth.
"The Committee continues to anticipate that economic conditions - including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run - are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate for an extended period," the committee said.
U.S. economic recovery is continuing at a moderate pace, though somewhat more slowly than the Committee has expected, the statement said.
High energy prices and supply disruptions from earthquake-hit Japan are the main causes for the slowing of U.S. economic growth but these factors are temporary and once these problems subside, the economy will rebound, the statement said.
The Committee will complete its $600 billion Treasury bond buying program by June 30 as planned, the statement said.
