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It indicates that the Fed remains cautious about the prospects for growth in the US and sets the stage for three more years of ultra-loose monetary policy in the world’s largest economy.

US equities also reversed earlier losses and the dollar briefly eased. The S&P 500 was up 0.2 per cent, and had recovered from a loss of 0.2 per cent before the Fed statement was published.

The dollar was trading 0.1 per cent higher after dipping as much 0.8 per cent on a trade-weighted basis, while the yield on $35bn five-year notes sold just before the statement had dropped 10 basis points to 0.80 per cent. The yield on 10-year notes was down 11 basis points at 1.95 per cent.

“The FOMC statement is slightly more dovish than expected and this has seen a knee jerk drop in the dollar and US equities bounce,” said Marc Chandler, currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman.

The change in the expected period of low rates until late 2014 comes as the Fed prepares to release a swathe of new information on its future policy plans, including forecasts of future interest rates, at 2pm eastern time on Wednesday afternoon.

Keeping a forecast date for the first rise in interest rates in its policy statement, and extending that date by more than a year, suggests that the Fed wants to minimise any confusion from the new communications policy. It shows that, regardless of the individual interest rate forecasts of FOMC members, the committee as a whole is committed to keeping rates low until the economy recovers.

However, it also suggests that the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee wants to do all it can via communications policy before considering another round of quantitative easing, nicknamed QE3.

“This is surely a case of the new interest rate forecasts forcing an important change in the FOMC’s statement, rather than a material change in economic views,” said Alan Ruskin, strategist at Deutsche Bank.

“While the Fed’s characterisation of the economy in the statement has not changed very much, the comment that conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the funds rate ‘at least through late 2014’ is on the surface a major difference from the mid-2013 date given in the last statement.”

The FOMC voted for the decision by 9-1. The only dissenter was Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Richmond Fed, who wanted to leave the late 2014 date out of the policy statement.

The Fed made few changes elsewhere in its policy statement. It continued to say that the economy “has been expanding moderately”; pointed to “some further improvement” in the labour market; and said that it expects growth in the coming quarters to be “modest” rather than “moderate”.

It also dropped a line about continuing “to pay close attention to the evolution of inflation and inflation expectations” suggesting that it now has greater confidence that price rises are slowing down.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke will give a press conference at 2.15pm eastern time on Wednesday afternoon.