Fed leaves 'considerable time' statement as a reference, not policy
The Fed's not ready yet.
Despite expectations that the Federal Reserve would take its first, albeit tentative, step toward raising interest rates Wednesday, the central bank instead opted to keep a key piece of language in its post-meeting statement.
The phrase "considerable period" has been included to assure financial markets that it would be quite some time before the central bank increased its target funds rate.
Though the statement remained in, the context changed. Instead of dropping the language, it offered a softening of the tone that indicated it was still prepared to hike, though perhaps not as close as the market anticipated.