The target range for the federal funds rate

The target range for the federal was continued at 0 to 0.25 percent at the March 1 6 Federal Open Market Committee meeting. The FOMC said it continues to anticipate that economic conditions, including low rates of resource utilization, subdued inflation trends and stable inflation expectations, are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period.

In its statement, the FOMC said information received since the FOMC met in January suggests that economic activity has continued to strengthen and that the labor market is stabilizing.

With substantial resource slack continuing to restrain cost pressures and longer-term inflation expectations stable, inflation is likely to be subdued for some time, the FOMC said.

Voting against the policy action was Thomas M. Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, who believed that continuing to express the expectation of exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period was no longer warranted because it could lead to the buildup of financial imbalances and increase risks to longer-run macroeconomic and financial stability.