WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve will complete its Treasury securities purchasing program at the end of June and will continue to reinvest principal holdings, while the federal funds rate target was held to a range between zero and 0.25%, the Federal Open Market Committee announced Wednesday.
Though inflation “has picked up,” expectations are still stable and underlying inflation remains “subdued,” the Fed said, noting it will keep a close eye on the “evolution of inflation.” The economic recovery is continuing at a “moderate pace” and employment conditions “are improving gradually,” it said.
Commodity prices “have risen significantly” as “concerns about global supplies of crude oil have contributed to a further increase in oil prices” since the Fed’s March meeting.
No members dissented .
During the March FOMC meeting, several participants said the risks to forecasts of inflation had shifted higher, according to the minutes released earlier this month. The Fed repeated in its statement that it expects commodity price increase to be “transitory.”
