The US Federal Reserve has held interest rates steady after today's meeting.
The Fedcited still-elevated inflation alongside solid economic growth, and it gave little indication in its latest policy statement of when borrowing costs might fall again.
"Economic activity has been expanding at a solid pace," Fed policymakers said in the statement after voting 10-2 to hold its benchmark interest rate in the 3.5%-3.75% range following a two-day meeting.
Both Governor Christopher Waller, a contender to replace Jerome Powell as Fed chair, and Governor Stephen Miran, on leave from his job as an economic adviser at the White House, dissented in favour of a quarter-percentage-point rate cut.
The Fed's statement offered no hint about when another reduction in borrowing costs might come, noting that "the extent and timing of additional adjustments" to the policy rate would depend on incoming data and the economic outlook.
Meanwhile, inflation "remains somewhat elevated," the Fed said, while the job market has "shown some signs of stabilisation."
Though the Fed noted that "job gains have remained low," it also removed language from its prior statement saying that downside risks to employment had risen - an indication policymakers as a group are becoming less worried about a rapid downturn in the labour market.
Fed policymakers ahead of this week's meeting had largely characterised the job market as roughly in balance, with smaller gains matching the slower growth in the numbers of those seeking employment as a result of the Trump administration's stricter immigration policies.
The US unemployment rate in December fell to 4.4%.
