Federal Reserve Keeps Rates Unchanged but Cites ‘Progress’ Toward Its Goals

The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and said it would continue buying large quantities of government debt, but suggested that it could slow those purchases before long if the economy continues to strengthen.

The Fed’s two key policy tools fuel demand by making money cheap to borrow and spend. Officials are actively debating when and how to slow their bond-buying program, which will be their first step toward a more normal policy setting as the economy rebounds. Officials hinted that they will continue thinking about when to begin what they refer to as tapering at upcoming policy meetings.

“Last December, the committee indicated that it would continue to increase its holdings” steadily “until substantial further progress has been made toward its maximum employment and price stability goals,” the Fed said in its post-meeting statement. “Since then, the economy has made progress toward these goals, and the committee will continue to assess progress in coming meetings.”

The central bank has been buying $120 billion in mortgage-backed securities and Treasury debt each month since last year, but economists expect the Fed to begin slowing those purchases later this year or early next.

But the central bank is trying to avoid pulling back its support for the economy too abruptly at a time when millions of jobs are missing compared to before the pandemic and as risks to the economic outlook persist. Those threats are only underscored by rising coronavirus cases in the United States and around the world tied to the Delta variant.

“The sectors most adversely affected by the pandemic have shown improvement but have not fully recovered,” the Fed said in its post-meeting policy statement.

Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, will hold a post-meeting news conference at 2:30 p.m., at which he is likely to field questions about the bond buying program.

The Fed is weighing conflicting economic signals as it shapes its policy. The United States economy is roaring back after lockdowns last year and early this year, with strong consumer spending supported by repeated government stimulus checks. Inflation is taking off as economic activity rebounds from weak 2020 levels and as surging demand for washing machines, electronics, cars and housing outstrips what producers can supply.

Consumer prices picked up by 5.4 percent in June from the prior year, the quickest pace since 2008. The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge has been slightly more muted, at 3.9 percent in May, but that, too, is well above the central bank’s 2 percent average inflation goal.

Officials expect the pop in prices to calm down as the economy gets back to normal. For now, they are more worried about a different set of risks: About 6.8 million jobs are still missing compared with February 2020 levels. Workers are taking time to sort back into suitable employment, and the central bank wants to make sure the economic recovery is robust as they try to do that.

Even when the Fed begins to dial back bond-buying, interest rates are likely to remain low. Long-running economic forces have pushed them naturally lower, and the central bank is expected to keep its main policy rate — the federal funds rate — at rock-bottom, where it has been since March 2020.

Officials have previously signaled that, barring a sustained burst in inflation or financial stability risks, they would like to leave interest rates near zero until the job market has returned to full employment. Their latest economic projections, released in June, suggested that most officials do not expect the economy to meet that high bar until 2023.