美国联邦储备委员会表示，由于冬季气候异常寒冷以及出口放缓，美国经济的增长速度在过去几个月里减慢。
美联储在政策声明中说，美联储高级官员们投票决定，关键利率保持现有水平不变。自从2008年财政危机以来，美国利率一直保持在从未有过的低水平。
美联储官员在声明中写道，保持低利率有助于经济恢复“温和”增长。一旦就业市场进一步改善，通胀率稍有攀升，美联储将会提高利率。
在经济衰退期间，美联储把利率削减到几乎为零，以期促进经济的复苏。当历史性低利率未能刺激经济增长后，美联储实施了美国经济从未使用过的手段，那就是，数次实施巨额债券购买计划，迫使利率降低。
财政危机8年后的今天，美国的失业率从衰退高峰期2009年的10%下跌到5.5%，股票市场收回损失，并达到历史新高。
美联储专家认为，通胀率保持在2%以下对经济有利。
The U.S. central bank says economic growth slowed over the past few months as unusually bad winter weather and slack exports took a toll.
In a policy statement, the Fed said that top Federal Reserve officials have voted to keep the key interest rate steady at the record low level where it has been since the financial crisis in 2008.
Fed officials wrote that keeping the interest rate low will help the economy resume "moderate" growth. They said officials will watch for further improvements in the job market and slightly higher inflation before they raise rates.
During the recession, the Fed cut interest rates nearly to zero in hopes of bolstering recovery. When record low interest rates failed to spark economic growth, the Fed developed tools that had never been used before in the U.S. economy by implementing several massive bond-buying programs to push rates down.
Eight years after the financial crisis, unemployment has fallen from a recession high of 10 percent in 2009 to 5.5 percent now. The stock market recovered its losses and has been hitting new record highs.
Inflation remains below the 2 percent rate that Fed experts say would be healthy for the economy.
