U.S. Fed keeps key lending rate unchanged for 5th straight time

The U.S. Federal Reserve held its benchmark lending rate steady for a fifth consecutive time during a monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, amid persistent questions over when it will start lowering the rate this year. After the two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, the central bank announced its decision to maintain the rate in the 5.25 to 5.50 percent range. The bank has frozen the rate since September following a July FOMC decision to raise the rate by a quarter percentage point to the current level. In March 2022, the Fed launched a rate-hiking campaign to bring down inflation that hit a 40-year high in July of the same year. The Fed is expected to start its cycle of rate cuts when inflation is convincingly on a sustainable track toward its inflation target of 2 percent. Source: Yonhap News Agency