AGL 40.40 Increased By ▲ 0.20 (0.5%)
AIRLINK 129.25 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (0.11%)
BOP 6.81 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (3.18%)
CNERGY 4.13 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (2.48%)
DCL 8.73 Increased By ▲ 0.28 (3.31%)
DFML 41.40 Increased By ▲ 0.15 (0.36%)
DGKC 87.75 Increased By ▲ 0.75 (0.86%)
FCCL 33.85 Increased By ▲ 0.50 (1.5%)
FFBL 66.40 Increased By ▲ 0.50 (0.76%)
FFL 10.69 Increased By ▲ 0.15 (1.42%)
HUBC 113.51 Increased By ▲ 2.81 (2.54%)
HUMNL 15.65 Increased By ▲ 0.42 (2.76%)
KEL 4.87 Increased By ▲ 0.09 (1.88%)
KOSM 7.62 Decreased By ▼ -0.21 (-2.68%)
MLCF 43.10 Increased By ▲ 1.20 (2.86%)
NBP 61.50 Increased By ▲ 1.00 (1.65%)
OGDC 192.20 Increased By ▲ 9.40 (5.14%)
PAEL 27.05 Increased By ▲ 1.69 (6.66%)
PIBTL 7.26 Increased By ▲ 1.00 (15.97%)
PPL 150.50 Increased By ▲ 2.69 (1.82%)
PRL 24.96 Increased By ▲ 0.40 (1.63%)
PTC 16.25 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.06%)
SEARL 71.30 Increased By ▲ 0.80 (1.13%)
TELE 7.25 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.68%)
TOMCL 36.29 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.03%)
TPLP 8.05 Increased By ▲ 0.20 (2.55%)
TREET 16.30 Increased By ▲ 1.00 (6.54%)
TRG 51.56 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-0.27%)
UNITY 27.35 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
WTL 1.27 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (3.25%)
BR100 9,957 Increased By 115.5 (1.17%)
BR30 30,770 Increased By 733.6 (2.44%)
KSE100 93,292 Increased By 771.2 (0.83%)
KSE30 29,017 Increased By 230.5 (0.8%)

US Federal Reserve policymakers unanimously agreed to keep crisis measures in place when they met Wednesday, batting away fears their policies risked stoking inflation. A revamped Federal Open Market Committee - the Fed's interest-rate setting panel - ended a two-day meeting with a pledge to continue a $600-billion stimulus plan designed to jolt the US economy out of its slumber.
Despite signs of a "continuing" recovery, the Fed kept its foot on the accelerator, continuing emergency bond purchases that prime the economy and keeping interest rates at the ultra-low rate of zero to 0.25 percent. "The economic recovery is continuing, though at a rate that has been insufficient to bring about a significant improvement in labour market conditions," members said in a statement. Since the last Fed policy meeting in December, unemployment has dropped to 9.4 percent and most economists see a diminishing risk of a downward spiral of wages and prices.
The brighter economic picture has given voice to the central bank's detractors, who argue it must ready itself for a return to more sustainable policies or else risk stoking inflation. But the Fed brushed aside those criticisms, saying price increases for some items were not representative of a larger trend.
"Although commodity prices have risen, longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable, and measures of underlying inflation have been trending downward." The statement was given extra weight by the absence of dissent, particularly from two new members of the panel who had voiced concerns about the Fed's policies before joining its top policy panel.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2011

Comments

Comments are closed.