Federal Reserve keeps rates near zero even as economy strengthens

• Maintaining its ultra-accommodative monetary policy, the Federal Reserve keeps rates near zero and will continue its current pace of asset purchases even as it acknowledges that the economy has strengthened.
• "Amid progress on vaccinations and strong policy support, indicators of economic activity and employment have strengthened," the Fed's statement said.
• The central bank officials note, too, that sectors that were hurt most by the pandemic "remain weak but have shown improvement."
• The Federal Open Market Committee, though, said the public health crisis continues to weigh on the economy and risks to the economic outlook remain.
• Inflation, it said, has risen, largely "reflecting transitory factors," repeating one of Chairman Jerome Powell's talking points of the past couple of months.
• That's a change from the previous FOMC statement, on March 17, that said that inflation was running below 2%.
• The central bank keeps its target range of 0.0%-0.25% for the federal funds rate and will continue to purchase at least $80B per month of Treasury securities and at least $40B per month of agency mortgage-backed securities.
• All FOMC voting members voted for the monetary policy action.
• Its forward guidance keeps the same wording as in its March decision.