The U.S. economy has strengthened to the point where the Federal Reserve will likely raise its rates before year-end, but the increase may be less than what was initially thought due to a slowly recovering economy, according to results of this week's meeting of the Federal Open Markets Committee in Wash., D.C.

FOMC officials unanimously voted to leave the funds rate unchanged at zero during its regular two-day meeting that concluded Wednesday. But based on the Fed's own economic forecasts, the rate is likely to rise for the first time in 10 years some time before the end of 2015.

The FOMC continues to see the risks to the outlook for economic activity and the labor market as nearly balanced, the Fed said in a news release today. Inflation likely will remain near its recent low level in the near term, but the committee expects inflation to rise gradually toward 2% as the labor market improves further and the transitory effects of earlier declines in energy and import prices dissipate.