The Federal Reserve kept policy unchanged at Wednesday’s policy meeting and noted that the ”economic outlook has improved modestly since the March meeting.”

The US central bank said the pace of economic decline had slowed but said ”economic activity is likely to remain weak for a time.” The Fed said it would ”evaluate the timing and overall amounts of its purchases of securities in light of the evolving economic outlook and conditions in financial markets” - leaving open the option of accelerating or extending these purchases at the next policy meeting, if required by changes to its forecast.