The Federal Reserve left interest rates near zero and vowed to do what it takes to shore up the U.S. economy
After a two-day policy meeting in which the U.S. central bank kept interest rates near zero and promised to expand emergency programs as needed to help the battered economy, Fed Chair Jerome Powell offered no sanguine words about how fast the country might return - if ever - to the near-record low unemployment and solid growth of just a few weeks ago.
“Trying to be really precise about when that might happen and what the numbers might look like - it is very tough to do that.” In the meantime, new programs to buy corporate bonds and lend to mid-sized companies are in the end stages of development and will be ready “soon,” Powell said.In a matter of weeks the U.S.
In its policy statement the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee sketched the extent of the pandemic’s effect so far, noting that “weaker demand and significantly lower oil prices are holding down consumer price inflation” and that “disruptions to economic activity here and abroad have significantly affected financial conditions and have impaired the flow of credit to U.S. households and businesses.
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