U.S. central bank, kept its benchmark federal funds rate unchanged at 0 to 0.25 percent

The Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, kept its benchmark federal funds rate unchanged at 0 to 0.25 percent and repeated that it anticipates keeping rates at these"exceptionally low levels" at least through mid-2015, steps that were widely expected by financial markets. A statement by the Federal Reserve's policy making body, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), essentially mirrored its statement fromSeptember. The FOMC saidit remains concerned that without sufficient policy accommodation, economic growth might not be strong enough to generate a sustained improvement inthe labor market. The FOMC said it would continue to increase its holdings of longer-term securities by about $85 billion each month throughthe end of this year by buying $40 billion of mortgage-backed securitiesa month, reinvesting proceeds from holdings into more agency-backed mortgage securities and extending the maturity of Treasury securities. As last month, the only member of the FOMC to vote against the statement was Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.