The Federal Reserve System (Fed, Federal Reserve), the central bank of the United States, said it would maintain a 'zero level interest rate' for the time being. It also reaffirmed its willingness to continue aggressive aggressive liquidity measures.

The Fed, after a regular meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on the 29th (local time), said in a statement, “The public health crisis is putting strong pressure on economic activity, employment and short-term prices. There is considerable risk in the medium-term economic outlook.” In addition, it said that it would freeze the standard interest rate at 0.00 ~ 0.25%.

The decision was unanimous.

The Fed said, "We will continue to maintain the range of interest rates until we are convinced that the economy is on the path to overcoming recent conditions and achieving the goals of 'maximum employment' and 'price stability'."

It is interpreted to mean that the standard interest rate will be frozen until the shutdown of economic activity caused by the new coronavirus infection (corona19) is resolved and the real economy normalizes.

Earlier, the Fed cut the benchmark interest rate by 1 percentage point from 1.00 to 1.25% to 0.00 to 0.25% on the 15th of last month in response to the Corona 19 crisis.

The Fed emphasized, in particular, in the first sentence of the FOMC statement, "We will mobilize a full range of tools to support the US economy in these challenging times."

It is evaluated that they used a more powerful expression than the market expected.

It seems to have focused on highlighting the Fed's will rather than taking additional measures, as it lowered the benchmark interest rate to zero levels and poured unprecedented disruptive 'quantitative easing' (QE) policies into speed.

According to the Associated Press, "the Fed's statement is an unusually comprehensive declaration."

(yunhap news)