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| ▲ This file photo, taken March 13, 2015, shows the Federal Reserve's headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Yonhap) |
FOMC-benchmark rate
U.S. Fed keeps key lending rate unchanged for second consecutive time
By Song Sang-ho
WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. Federal Reserve held its benchmark lending rate steady at a 22-year high for a second consecutive time during a monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, as it keeps striving to bring down inflation to its 2-percent target.
After the two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the central bank announced the decision to keep the rate between 5.25 percent and 5.50 percent. But it remains uncertain whether the Fed will continue to leave it unchanged in the next regular FOMC meeting scheduled for Dec. 12-13.
In the last FOMC meeting in September, the bank froze the rate -- the second pause in its rate-hiking campaign that started in March last year with an aim to tame inflation. In the previous meeting in July, it raised the rate by a quarter percentage point to the current level.
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