US Federal Reserve maintains its interest rate at the previous level

Almaty. September 22. Silkroadnews – At the end of the two-day meeting the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the US Federal Reserve decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0.25 to 0.5%, RBC reports.

With this the Committee does not exclude that the rate will remain at this level only for a while.
«The Committee expects that economic conditions will evolve in a manner that will warrant only gradual increases in the federal funds rate», the regulator stated.

The Fed did not give direct signals on the rate possible changes in December (most of the market participants expect its increase at the December meeting), yet noted the positive dynamics of the labor market and economic activity acceleration (from the moderate pace in January-June) observed since the last meeting in July.

The Fed expects that, with gradual adjustments in the stance of monetary policy, economic activity will expand at a moderate pace and labor market conditions will strengthen somewhat further. Inflation is expected to remain low in the short-term, in part due to earlier declines in energy prices, but to rise to 2% over the medium term as the transitory effects of past declines in energy and import prices dissipate and the labor market strengthens further.

Besides, the regulator has, for the first time, noted that the near-term risks to the economic outlook appear «roughly balanced».

RBC reminds, the last time when the Fed raised its benchmark federal-funds rate for the first time in nearly a decade, by a quarter point, was on December 14, 2015.