Federal Reserve vows to keep interest rates near zero until inflation rises

The Fed's decision drew two dissents, one from a policymaker who thought it went too far, and the other from one who thought it didn't go far enough

The Federal Reserve kept interest rates pinned near zero on Wednesday and made a bold, new promise: to keep them there until inflation is on track to "moderately exceed" the US central bank's 2 per cent inflation target "for some time."

The new guidance marks a monetary policy shift, first announced by the Fed last month, that is aimed to offset years of weak inflation and allow the economy to keep adding jobs for as long as possible.

"Effectively what we are saying is that rates will remain highly accommodative until the economy is far along in its recovery," Fed Chair Jerome