Federal Reserve remains open to interest rate hike in June

The Federal Reserve said it anticipates a rebound in the US economy after the sluggish winter months, remaining open to the possibility of an interest-rate increase as early as June.

However, the latest statement following Wednesday's meeting could indicate that the central back may want to delay the move, possibly until September.

Analysts suggested that the two job reports due to be released before the Fed's June meeting were likely to impact the decision.

The Fed also noted sluggish US growth during the first quarter, although it suggested that this could be transitory.

"The simplest and probably most accurate explanation for this is that despite all bad data in Q1, there are satisfactory, one-off explanations for much of Q1’s weakness," said Bill Hubbard, chief economist at Bankor.

While GDP and job creation cooled in the first quarter, the central bank "continues to expect that ... economic activity will expand at a moderate pace," the Fed said.

No shift in policy stance was signaled, with a reiteration that the benchmark short-term interest rate, the federal funds rate, would remain close to zero.

Paul Ashworth, Chief US Economist at Capital Economics, maintained a positive outlook. "We are convinced that both GDP growth and the pace of employment gains will rebound markedly over the next few months. We have already seen a near 1% rebound in retail sales in March," he said.

As in March, the policy statement said that rates would be raised only when official felt reasonably confident that inflation is on its way to the Fed's 2% objective and the job market continues to improve.

The Fed's statement and actions were approved unanimously with a 10-0 vote.

US stocks were trading lower shortly after the statement was released.

As of 19:17 the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury was higher by four basis points to 2.04%.