The U.S. Federal Reserve held its benchmark lending rate steady for a sixth consecutive time during a monetary policy meeting on Wednesday as stickier-than-expected inflation has dampened prospects for rate cuts in the near future. After the two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, the central bank announced the decision to maintain the rate in the 5.25 to 5.50 percent range, a 23-year high, while citing a "lack of further progress" in efforts to achieve its inflation target of 2 percent. "In recent months, there has been a lack of further progress toward the Committee's 2 percent inflation objective," the Fed said in a press release. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that it may take more time than expected for the Fed to start lowering the key rate. Speculation has already abounded that rate cuts could come later than anticipated due to stubborn inflation. "We've stated that we did not expect that it will be appropriate to reduce the target range for the federal funds rate until we have gained g reater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent," he told a press briefing. "Readings on inflation have come in above expectations. It is likely that gaining such greater confidence will take longer than previously expected," he added. Powell underlined that inflation is higher than anticipated. "Inflation is still too high. Further progress in bringing it down is not assured and the path forward is uncertain," he said. But he said that the Fed's next policy rate move is "unlikely" to be a hike. "I would say it's unlikely. Our policy focus is ... how long to keep policy restrictive," he said. "What would it take (for a hike)? I think we would need to see persuasive evidence that our policy stance is not sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation sustainably down to 2 percent." The chair was uncertain about when rate cuts will come. In a March FOMC meeting, the Fed gave median economic projections that signaled the possibility of three quarter-percentage-point cuts this year. " What we said is that we need to be more confident, and we said (today) we didn't see progress in the first quarter and I've said that it appears that it's going to take longer for us to reach that point of confidence," he said. "I don't know how long it will take. I can just say that when we get that confidence, then rate cuts will be in scope." The U.S. key rate has remained unchanged since a quarter percentage point increase to the current level in July. Before the freeze, the central bank carried out an aggressive rate-hiking campaign launched in March 2022 to bring down inflation. The latest Fed rate freeze put the gap between the key rates of South Korea and the United States at up to 2 percentage points. Source: Yonhap News Agency