The Federal Open Market Committee met in February 2017 and presented the current information on our economy. They stated the information presented indicated that the labor market is continuing to strengthen and basic economic activity continues to grow. Although unemployment did not see much change, job growth remains solid. Inflation is still 
running under the 2% mark, with household spending slightly going up.
The committee states that the short term economic outlook "appears roughly balanced," but definitely more optimistic for the medium-term. The committee is trying to maximize employment and price stability, which is what they were created to do, so they'll be keeping a close eye on all the economic indicators for inflation and the global economic development.
Due to the information given at the meeting, the committee decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to 3/4 to 1 percent. Although they will be sticking to their existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities and rolling over maturing Treasury auctions. The committee will continue to do so until normalization of the level of the federal funds rate is well under way, to the accommodating financial conditions.