In a move in line with expectations, the US Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday for the sixth consecutive time.
Interest rates in the world's largest economy remained at 5.25 percent and 5.5 percent.
The Federal Reserve has been keeping interest rates at their highest level in 22 years for months to curb lending and calm rising prices, although slowing inflation last year gave an optimistic sense that the first cut was on the horizon.
The US Federal Reserve stated in a statement that current inflation rates are still far from the target levels of 2 percent, and indicated that no further progress has been made in its attempts to curb inflation.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said inflation has declined over the past year, but remains at high levels.
He also explained that the labor market in the United States is still strong, which is a good thing, according to him, despite his indication that families and companies are being harmed by high interest rates.
Powell added that reducing inflation has stalled in recent months, noting that further progress on curbing high inflation is not certain.
He said: We are committed to reducing inflation rates to 2 percent, and we do not expect it to be appropriate to reduce interest rates until we have greater confidence that inflation will decline towards the target rate.
