WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve continued to retreat from its stimulus campaign on Wednesday, saying it was looking past the economic slowdown during an unusually cold winter because growth already was rebounding.

As expected, the Fed announced after a two-day meeting of its policy-making committee that it would pare its purchases of Treasury and mortgage-backed securities by another $10 billion, to $45 billion a month beginning in May.

“Growth in economic activity has picked up recently, after having slowed sharply during the winter in part because of adverse weather conditions,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement announcing the unanimous decision.

The statement, while affirming the Fed’s intent to stop buying bonds later this year, offered no new insight into the next decision the Fed must make: when to start raising short-term interest rates, which it has held near zero since December 2008.