经济增速减慢美联储保持低利率不变

The U.S. central bank says economic growth slowed over the past few months as unusually bad winter weather and slack exports took a toll.

In a policy statement, the Fed said that top Federal Reserve officials have voted to keep the key interest rate steady at the record low level where it has been since the financial crisis in 2008.

Fed officials wrote that keeping the interest rate low will help the economy resume "moderate" growth. They said officials will watch for further improvements in the job market and slightly higher inflation before they raise rates.

During the recession, the Fed cut interest rates nearly to zero in hopes of bolstering recovery. When record low interest rates failed to spark economic growth, the Fed developed tools that had never been used before in the U.S. economy by implementing several massive bond-buying programs to push rates down.

Eight years after the financial crisis, unemployment has fallen from a recession high of 10 percent in 2009 to 5.5 percent now. The stock market recovered its losses and has been hitting new record highs.

Inflation remains below the 2 percent rate that Fed experts say would be healthy for the economy.