WASHINGTON: The US Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday, citing still-elevated inflation alongside solid economic growth, and giving little indication in its latest policy statement of when borrowing costs might fall again.

“Economic activity has been expanding at a solid pace,” Fed policymakers said in the statement after voting 10-2 to hold the US central bank’s benchmark interest rate in the 3.50 percent-3.75 percent range following a two-day meeting.

Both Governor Christopher Waller, a contender to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell when his term as central bank chief ends in May, and Governor Stephen Miran, on leave from his job as an economic adviser at the White House, dissented in favour of a quarter-percentage-point rate cut.

The Fed’s statement offered no hint about when another reduction in borrowing costs might come, noting that “the extent and timing of additional adjustments” to the policy rate would depend on incoming data and the economic outlook.

Meanwhile, inflation “remains somewhat elevated,” the central bank said, while the job market has “shown some signs of stabilization.” Though the Fed noted that “job gains have remained low,” it also removed language from its prior statement saying that downside risks to employment had risen - an indication policymakers as a group are becoming less worried about a rapid downturn in the labor market.—Reuters