The Federal Reserve kept interest rates at near 0 per cent at the August meeting and showed no signs of changing course as it said the United States may be emerging from a 20-month recession.

The Fed has kept its benchmark federal funds rate at a 0-0.25 percent range since December and repeated that it would stay the course 'for an extended period' as the economy begins to recover.

US President Barack Obama last month also reappointed Ben Bernanke to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, electing stability over change during the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.