Fed To Keep Interest Rates Low, Will End QE2 On Time

During his first ever press conference on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that the central bank will keep interest rates historically low while the nation’s economy continues its “moderate” ascent.

The following are some important take-aways from today’s presser, listed in bullet-point fashion…

- Bernanke said that the Fed will end its $600 billion Quantitative Easing (QE2) program on schedule at the end of June. His words seemed to calm fears that the Fed is considering purchasing another round of Treasury notes.

- Bernanke called QE2 successful and said that it worked to boost economic recovery and stave off deflation. However, the Fed recently downgraded its outlook for economic growth for the rest of this year, and Bernanke suggested that the pace of economic recovery in the U.S. will be “moderate” at best, growing somewhere between 3.1% and 3.4% this year.

- Bernanke said that the Fed will keep interest rates at historically low levels (between 0 and .25%) for the forseeable future.

- The Fed Chairman said that his agency expects the national unemployement rate to fall only slightly by the end of the year, to somewhere between 8.4% and 8.7%.

- Though the nation has experienced slight inflation in recent months, Bernanke attributed that to rising energy and commodity prices. He said that the central bank expects inflation to be short-lived and “transitory.”

- On gas prices, Bernanke said he could sympathize with Americans who are paying more at the pump these days, but said that the Fed won’t be able to do much about it. However, Bernanke said that the Fed expects oil prices to stabilize in the near future.

This story was updated at 3:45 pm ET.