US Fed sticks to current monetary easing

WASHINGTON - The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced that it will keep buying assets at the current pace of $85 billion a month to bolster economic growth.

US economic growth expanded at a "moderate" pace following a pause late last year. Labor market conditions have shown signs of improvement in recent months but the unemployment rate remains high, the Fed said in a statement after wrapping up its two-day policy meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Fed's powerful interest rate setting panel.

To support a stronger economic recovery, the FOMC decided to continue purchasing additional agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) at a pace of $40 billion per month and longer-term Treasury securities at a pace of $45 billion per month, noted the statement.

The Fed also decided to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at zero to 0.25 percent. The US central bank has kept its federal funds rate at this historically low range since the end of 2008 to keep short-term borrowing cost low.