Lower for even longer as Fed holds fire on interest rates

Interest rates will be held near zero for at least three more years as the US economy struggles to recover the economic ground lost to Covid-19, the Federal Reserve signalled on Wednesday. The world’s most powerful central bank held interest rates unchanged at 0 to 0.25pc after drastic cuts in February and March to battle the shock of a pandemic that has claimed almost 200,000 American lives. Fed chairman Jay Powell has given himself more firepower to boost the economy after switching to a