Federal Reserve policymakers just announced that they believe "economic activity has continued to pick up and that the deterioration in the labor market is abating."

And in their always highly anticipated statement at the end of their policy making meetings, the central bankers add that:

— With substantial resource slack likely to continue to dampen cost pressures and with longer-term inflation expectations stable, the Committee expects that inflation will remain subdued for some time.

— The Committee will maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and continues to anticipate that economic conditions, including low rates of resource utilization, subdued inflation trends, and stable inflation expectations, are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period.

Translation: The Fed concedes that the economy remains weak, but thinks it's slowly getting better and isn't doing anything yet to cool things off in a bid to head off future inflation.

Planet Money follows the economy here.