At 02:00 on Thursday, July 29th, Beijing time, the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) released its latest interest rate decision, leaving the benchmark interest rate in the 0.5% range, the excess reserve rate (IOER) at 0.15%, and the overnight reverse repo rate at 0.05%, in line with market expectations.

The Fed said it would continue to increase its holdings of Treasuries by at least $80 billion a month and at least $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities until substantial progress was made in the committee's goal of full employment and price stability.

It is appropriate to maintain this interest rate target range until labour market conditions reach a level consistent with the committee's assessment of full employment, and inflation has risen to 2 per cent and is set to moderately exceed 2 per cent for some time, the statement said.

The Fed statement said the US economy had made progress towards the goal needed to reduce quantitative easing. The Fed reiterated that the rise in inflation largely reflected the impact of temporary factors, seeking to achieve inflation moderately above 2 per cent for a period of time so that the average long-term inflation reached 2 per cent, and longer-term inflation expectations remained firmly anchored at 2 per cent.

The progress of COVID-19 's vaccination may continue to reduce the impact of the public health crisis on the economy, but there are still risks to the economic outlook, the statement said.