Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and all but one of his central bank colleagues felt comfortable staying the course and kept an important interest rate at 5.25 percent for the third meeting in a row.
'Commercial banks' prime interest rate — for certain credit cards, home equity lines of credit and other loans — remained at 8.25 percent.
"Economic growth has slowed over the course of the year, partly reflecting a cooling of the housing market," Fed policymakers observed. "Going forward, the economy seems likely to expand at a moderate pace," they predicted.
The Fed's goal is for the economy to slow enough to reduce pressures from inflation but not so much that it would risk falling into recession.
For the third meeting in a row, Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Va., was the lone dissenter. As he did in the August and September meetings, Lacker said he would have preferred that the Fed boost interest rates by one-quarter percentage point.
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