The market had not expected any dramatic news from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and his management.

The policy rate also remains unchanged in the range of 0-0-0.25 percent and is not expected to be raised until 2023.

Instead, the focus has been on the Fed's forecasts for GDP.

The central bank is also optimistic and estimates that GDP growth will increase by 6.5 per cent this year, which can be compared with the expected 4.2 per cent in December.

The message was received positively by the stock exchanges on Wall Street.

Inflation is expected to increase to 2.4 per cent this year and then to slow to 2.0 per cent in 2022 and 2.1 per cent in 2023. Unemployment is expected to fall to 4.5 per cent by the end of the year, compared with 6.2 per cent in February.

Not fully recovered

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says that although the outlook for the US economy has brightened, thanks to rapid action by Congress, it has far from fully recovered.

"The economy is far from employment and inflation targets, and it will probably take time to make further progress," Powell said at a news conference.

He says the Fed "will continue to provide the economy with the support it needs for as long as needed."

But at the same time, he warns that it is not possible to sit back and be too happy with the recovery from the pandemic.

Concerns about overheating

Wednesday's interest rate announcement, with new GDP and inflation forecasts, comes after a wave of market turmoil for inflation and overheating has swept across the world this year.

Among other things, this has pushed up long-term market interest rates - especially in the US, but also in the eurozone and Sweden.

Among other things, President Joe Biden's $ 1,900 billion corona crisis support package has contributed to the development.

In addition, there is advancing vaccination, reducing the spread of infection and easing coronary restrictions in the United States.

The interest rate on the US ten-year government bond has risen by 0.72 percentage points since the turn of the year and revolved around Wednesday's interest rate announcement of just over 1.60 percent - the highest levels since before the pandemic.

This can be compared with the historical bottom level below 0.32 percent when the corona crisis hit in earnest in March 2020.