The Federal Open Market Committee, in an expected move, decided to leave its target for the federal-funds rate unchanged at 5.25 percent for a seventh consecutive meeting, hardly shifting the accompanying statement from the previous meeting. However, the decision has now enticed economists to think how much longer the central bank can continue to hold the interest rates. Ben Bernanke and his central bank colleagues continue to show their stiff faces with respect to their next move with keeping the hope that the markets believe that they have a rate-cut card on their cards. The central bank had been widely expected to make no change in interest rates following strong inflation pressures despite sluggish economic growth. The Fed, in an undisputed vote, kept the same prominence in its policy statement despite some predictions of a shift. The central bank headed by Ben Bernanke has been under mounting pressure to strike the right equilibrium of monetary policy with the world’s biggest economy having slowed to a crawl even though inflation has remained dangerously high. Economic growth has decelerated in the first part of this year and the adjustment in the housing sector is still ongoing, the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee said. It further extended that the economy seems likely to expand at a moderate pace over coming quarters. While focusing on inflation risks it FOMC repeated that core price pressures excluding food and energy were somewhat elevated but seem likely to moderate over time. Fed in its statement further added that a key risk is that the high level of resource utilization has the potential to sustain those pressures, a reference to tight labor market conditions. In the present state of affairs, the Committee’s predominant policy concern remains the risk that inflation will fail to moderate as expected, according to the statement. Future policy adjustments will depend on the evolution of the outlook for both inflation and economic growth, as implied by incoming information. Moreover, inflation remains uncomfortably too high from Fed’s expectations that exceeded 2 percent over the past year even with volatile food and fuel prices excluded. Though the veterans at Fed hope price pressures to ease over a period of time, but worry that low unemployment and busy factories could prevent that from happening. In addition, even as the Fed has forecast sluggish growth, reports that the economy expanded at a moderate 1.3 percent annual rate in the first quarter and that the housing market remains in the depression have raised some fears the expansion might be more uncertain than initially contemplated. At the same time, Fed chief’s assertion that price increases are the major threat to the economy might improve his standing among investors. While laying emphasis on inflation in its words, the Fed may avoid having to do anything to push it to bring down in coming months and risk a further economic slowdown.