Fed to Stick With Support as Recovery Will Take ‘Some Time’, Minutes Show By Investing.com – Investing.com

Fed to Stick With Support as Recovery Will Take ‘Some Time’, Minutes Show By Investing.com – Investing.com

© Reuters.

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com - Federal Reserve policymakers acknowledged progress on the economy, but continued to back the ongoing pace of monetary support as substantial progress on the recovery will likely take "some time," according to the Federal Reserve minutes released Wednesday.

"U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) was expanding in the first quarter of 2021 at a pace that was faster than in the fourth quarter of last year, al­though the level of real GDP had likely not yet returned to the level seen before the onset of the pandemic, the minutes showed. 

"Participants noted that it would likely be some time until substantial further progress toward the Committee's maximum-employment and price-stability goals would be realized and that, consistent with the Committee's outcome-based guidance, asset purchases would continue at least at the current pace until then." 

At the conclusion of its previous meeting on March 18, the Federal Open Market Committee kept its benchmark rate in a range of  0% to 0.25% and pledged to maintain bond purchases at a $120 billion monthly pace.

At the meeting, the bank, despite acknowledging the recent improvement in the economy and improving inflation, maintained its forecast to keep rates near-zero through 2023. Among the 12