Photo : AP / Yonhap News
The U.S. Federal Reserve has held its benchmark interest rate steady, ending a string of three consecutive rate cuts.
After a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank said in a statement Wednesday that it had kept its key lending rate at a range of three-point-five percent to three-point-75 percent.
The committee cut the rate by a quarter-point at each of its last three meetings in September, October and December last year.
The committee said that job gains have remained low, and the unemployment rate has shown some signs of stabilization, and that inflation remains somewhat elevated.
With the freeze, the gap with South Korea’s benchmark rate remains at one‑point‑25 percentage points.