It was more of the same from the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee this month: the targetfederal funds rate will remain between zero and 0.25%, and theFed's securities purchases will continue at the pace of $85 billionper month.

The FOMC also repeated its position that the fed funds rate willremain unchanged as long as the unemployment rate remains above6.5% and inflation projections remain below 2.5%.

The Fed also released Wednesday a collection of economicprojections compiled from its board members and bank presidents.Those projections anticipated the fed funds rate will likely remainat its current level through the end of 2014; however, all but onefed representative projected the rate will rise in 2015.