Fed holds steady on stimulus, interest rates

WASHINGTON (MCT) — Federal Reserve policymakers on Wednesday held steady on their new stimulus program, launching no new initiatives while saying there has been some improvement in household spending and an uptick in inflation since the effort began last month.

In a statement after its two-day meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee left short-term interest rates unchanged and reiterated that it planned to keep them at their current level at least through mid-2015 because of the struggling economy.

Six weeks after the Fed fired what might be its last bullet to try to strengthen the recovery, analysts did not expect the central bank to make any major new announcements Wednesday. And Fed policymakers complied, making only some slight revisions in its view of economic conditions from their statement at the end of September's meeting.

The assessment of overall growth was the same, with the Fed saying that "economic activity continued to expand at a moderate pace in recent months."