Federal Reserve officials opted tonight to keep US interest rates at 1958 lows and said they expected to hold rates down for a considerable period out of concern inflation could drift undesirably low.
The central bank's policysetting Federal Open Market Committee said it had left the benchmark federal funds rate at 1 per cent, a 45-year low hit after the Fed cut rates 13 times since early 2001 in an effort to foster a vigorous expansion.
In announcing their decision, policy-makers repeated a warning they first issued in May over a small risk that already low-inflation could move down further, a risk they said would be their main concern for the foreseeable future.