According to minutes from its last meeting, the central bank now expects the economy to be flat in the second half of 2009 and grow slowly next year.
Federal Reserve policymakers lowered their economic outlook for the rest of the year at its meeting last month, suggesting that they may not be done taking unprecedented steps to try and jumpstart a recovery.
According to the minutes of the Fed's latest policy meeting, which were released Wednesday, the central bank said that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, is likely to flatten out in the second half of 2009 and expand only slowly next year.
The Fed had previously forecast in January that GDP would start to recover in the second half of this year and that the economy would grow between 2.5% and 3.3% in 2010
