Not time to hike US rate, will continue to buy bonds ANI 29 Jul 2021, 09:37 GMT+10 Washington [US], July 29 (ANI/Sputnik): The time is not right yet to raise US interest rates as the Federal Reserve is still focused on buying bonds to support an economy recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, Chairman Jerome Powell said. "Right now, it's not the ideal time to think about raising interest rates; instead, the Fed is focusing on asset purchases," Powell said on Wednesday (local time), referring to the central bank's monthly commitment of 120 billion dollars to support the economy. "In an ideal world, you wouldn't boost rates before starting to taper."The Federal Reserve left the interest rates unchanged after a two-day policy meeting for July held by its Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). US rates have been kept at a record low of between zero and 0.25 per cent by the FOMC since the coronavirus outbreak in March 2020.