Fox Capital Partners says that as expected, the US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged after the two-day deliberations of the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC). Most attention was focused on the central bank’s statement which told the market what many investors already suspected but several officials still find difficult to acknowledge; namely that the US economy is slowing.

“Economic activity appears to have slowed,” said the FOMC’s statement which acknowledged the conflicting signs being sent by the world’s largest economy. Consistent job growth and an improving housing market versus slowdowns in business investment, exports and a definite moderation in household spending despite apparently buoyant consumer confidence.

Despite the Fed’s apparent dovish tone, it didn’t take the possibility of a hike in June off the table but many market-watchers were skeptical. “There’s no way the Fed is going to have room to raise interest rates in June if, as it always maintains, its actions are data dependent. The simple fact is that the data is dreadful and we can’t see anything looming on the horizon that could change that,” opined Gordon Li-Chao, chief economist at Fox Capital Partners.

Though, by the core prices index (CPI), the Fed’s attempts to generate 2% inflation have failed, in the real economy, ordinary Americans complain about the rising cost of healthcare, education and rents among other things.

“Even if their disingenuous measure for inflation started to approach their 2% target, we very much doubt that the Fed would consider raising interest rates when to do so would essentially kill off what little growth the economy can muster,” concluded Li-Chao.

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