The Federal Reserve is holding steady on interest rates, keeping them at zero or near zero until the economic damage done by the coronavirus pandemic is over.
The board announced Wednesday it would keep its benchmark overnight rate in a target range of zero to point-two-five percent. It suggested it may do so through 2022.
President Trump and some economists have urged the Fed to go to negative interest rates as some countries have done. However, Chairman Jerome Powell has said in the past they are unlikely to take that step.
The Board cut its estimate for the nation's gross domestic product to a six-point-five percent decline. It also raised its unemployment forecast to nine-point-three-percent.
It now says that because of the economic slowdown inflation will likely remain under two percent until 2023.