Putin approves sale of US company's assets in Russia Putin approves sale of US company's assets in Russia

In the statement released by the Fed after the two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, it was stated that the decision to keep the interest rate unchanged was unanimous.

Noting that the FOMC aims for maximum employment and 2 percent inflation in the long term, the statement said that it was decided to keep the federal funds rate at 5.25-5.50 percent in order to support these goals.

In the statement, it was reported that the latest indicators pointed out that economic activity grew at a "strong" pace in the third quarter.

Employment gains have moderated since the beginning of the year and remain strong, the statement said, adding that the unemployment rate remains low and inflation remains high.

While it was noteworthy that the Fed did not change much in the monetary policy decision text, the growth in economic activity, which was previously described as "robust", was described as "strong". It was added to the decision text that employment gains have moderated since the beginning of the year.

The statement emphasized that the US banking system is sound and resilient and that tighter financial and credit conditions for households and businesses are likely to put pressure on economic activity, hiring and inflation.

The statement said that the size of these effects remains uncertain and that the FOMC continues to be extremely cautious about inflation risks.

Fed has raised interest rates by a total of 525 basis points since March 2022

The Fed, which started raising interest rates by completing its asset purchase operation last year in the face of high inflation in the US, has made a total of 11 rate hikes since March 2022 and raised the interest rate by a total of 525 basis points.

With these increases, the bank's policy rate rose to 5.25-5.50 percent, the highest level since 2001.

Inflation in the US was recorded as 3.7 percent on an annual basis in September, after seeing the highest level since 1981 with 9 percent on an annual basis in June last year.