The Federal Reserve has voted to keep US interest rates on hold for the 22nd meeting in succession, as expected.
Its policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee said that while the US economy was continuing to recover “at a moderate pace” this was “somewhat more slowly” than it had expected.
It added that the continuing economic weakness was mainly due to temporary factors, such as higher energy prices.
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke will give a press conference later.
The central bank is also due to publish its latest economic projections.
US interest rates have now been between 0% and 0.25% since December 2008 in an effort to boost economy growth.
The Federal Reserve said rates would probably remain at this level “for an extended period”.
The rest is here:
Fed keeps interest rates on hold