NAN-F-15
Election
Washington, Nov. 2, 2016 (dpa/NAN) The U.S. Federal Reserve left monetary policy unchanged ahead of next week’s general election, but fuelled expectations for a hike by December in the central bank’s benchmark interest rate.
In a statement after its two-day regular meeting, the Fed’s monetary policy committee said its preferred measures of inflation “have moved up but remained low.”
The Fed had struggled for years to stoke inflation to reach its own 2-per-cent target.
Against this backdrop, the Committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds
rate at 0.25 to 0.5 per cent.
The Fed said the case for an increase in the benchmark interest rate “has continued to strengthen.”
However, committee members decided “for the time being, to wait for some further evidence of continued progress toward its objectives,” which include full employment.
The Fed left the key rate in a range of 0.25 to 0.5 per cent since December 2015. (dpa/NAN)
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(Edited by Damilola Oyewole/Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu)