The US Federal Reserve believes the US economy was close to warranting an interest rate hike in September but policymakers decided it was prudent to wait for evidence a global economic slowdown was not knocking United States off course.
The US Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Thursday in a nod to concerns about a weak world economy, but left open the possibility of a modest policy tightening later this year. In what amounted to a tactical retreat, the US central bank said an array of global risks and other factors had convinced it to delay what would have been the first rate hike in nearly a decade.
The United States Federal Reserve on Wednesday decided to leave its benchmark federal funds interest rate unchanged at between 0 percent and 0.25 percent, while it offered an optimistic assessment of the world's biggest economy and hinted that a rate hike remains on the short-term horizon.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the US central bank remains on track to raise interest rates this year, with labor markets expected to steadily improve and turmoil abroad unlikely to throw the US economy off track.
Citing an improving economy, the Federal Reserve signaled Wednesday it is most probably on track to raise historically low interest rates as early as September, but that rates are likely to climb more gradually than it previously
The International Monetary Fund urged the Federal Reserve to wait until the first half of 2016 to start raising short-term interest rates because the US economy remains subpar. In its annual checkup of the US economy released Thursday, the IMF said the underpinnings for continued growth and job creation remain in place.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen made it clear on Friday that the central bank was poised to raise interest rates this year, as the US economy was set to bounce back from an early-year slump and as headwinds at home and abroad waned. The announcement was made in a speech to a business group in Rhode Island.
The chair of the US Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, has warned stock market levels present potential dangers, insisting current valuations, which have seen key US and UK indicators reach record levels, were quite high. However she did not see 'any bubbles forming'.
The US Federal Reserve has kept its target interest rate at a record low at the end of a two-day policy meeting in Washington, DC. The US central bank has indicated it will raise rates soon, as long as the US economy continued to grow, but the timing of the increase remains uncertain.
The U.S. Federal Reserve says it can no longer remain patient about changing rates, an indication that interest rate hikes could begin this spring. But in a news conference, Fed chair Janet Yellen said the central bank has not settled on the timing of the rate hike.