Washington: Federal Reserve officials left interest rates unchanged while acknowledging rising confidence among consumers and businesses following Donald Trump’s election victory. “Measures of consumer and business sentiment have improved of late,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in its statement Wednesday following a two-day meeting in Washington. Policy makers reiterated their expectations for moderate economic growth, “some further strengthening” in the labour market and a return to 2% inflation. The decision to leave the target federal funds rate unchanged in a range of 0.5% to 0.75% was unanimous and widely expected by investors. The FOMC’s only move in 2016 came when it raised rates by a quarter percentage point in the last meeting of the year.

Source: Mint February 01, 2017 19:41 UTC