The U.S. Federal Reserve Keeps Interest Rates Unchanged from 0% to 0.25%

After the first interest rate decision of the year, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced that it will maintain the interest rate target range from 0% to 0.25%, and reiterated that it will continue its monthly asset purchase plan of US$120 billion, which is in line with market expectations. However, starting on the 9th of next month, the one-month repurchase operations will no longer be provided regularly. The statement after the meeting pointed out that the US economy is slowing down and the problems are concentrated in the industries most affected by the epidemic. The future direction depends on the progress of vaccination, while the Fed promised to exhaust all tools to support the economy, and will maintain easing policies until inflation is moderately higher than the 2% target for a period of time. Fed Chairman Powell pointed out that once the process of achieving the policy goals slows down, it is not ruled out that more loose policies will be introduced and will be communicated to the market through forward-looking guidance.