The Federal Reserve kept its easy-money policies Wednesday but left the door open to step up bond purchases if the economy slowed under the government's severe "sequester" spending cuts. The central bank's policy board, the Federal Open Market Committee, said after a two-day meeting that the economy continued to grow at a "moderate" pace. But it also said that growth was being restrained by the government's tighter fiscal policy, which imposed tax hikes in January and across-the-board spending cuts in March.

The Federal Reserve held its easy-money policies in place Wednesday in the face of a moderately growing economy facing headwinds from the government's severe "sequester" spending cuts. The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, as widely expected, kept the central bank's key interest rate at zero to 0.25 percent and its $85 billion a month bond-buying program in place in a bid to support economic growth.

TORONTO - The Canadian dollar closed slightly higher Wednesday as a raft of negative economic data raised demand concerns and depressed commodity prices. The loonie rose 0.06 of a cent to 99.2 cents US. There was at least one bit of good news: the U.S. Federal Reserve announced that it will carry on with its economic stimulus measures for some time to come. That means interest rates stay near zero until the jobless rate hits 6.5 per cent from its current level of 7.6 per cent.

A top European Central Bank official played down Thursday growing expectations of a looming cut in eurozone interest rates, saying that such a move should not be seen as a cure-all for the region's debt crisis. "Monetary policy is not an all-purpose weapon for any kind of economic illness," ECB executive board member Joerg Asmussen told a conference in London in comments made available by the central bank.