国际英语新闻:Central Bank Says US Economy Expanding 'Moderately'

The U.S. central bank says the American economy is growing "moderately" and that the country's high unemployment rate could fall below 8 percent late this year.

After a two-day meeting of its chief policy makers in Washington, the Federal Reserve refrained Wednesday from adopting new stimulus measures to boost the economic fortunes for the world's largest economy. The bank said it expects that economic growth will "remain moderate" over the coming months and then "pick up gradually."

The central bank said it is keeping its benchmark lending rate at the historically low level of zero to a quarter of a percentage point, and it expects to maintain the same interest rate at least through late 2014.

The bank said the country's labor market has improved, even though the jobless rate, 8.2 percent in March, remains high. But Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said at a news conference that policy makers now think that as the economy improves, the jobless rate could fall to a range of 7.8 to 8 percent late this year and improve even more in the next two years.

"Looking ahead, the committee anticipates the unemployment rate will decline gradually over the next several years, reflecting the moderate pace of economic growth. Specifically, [the policy makers'] projections for the unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of this year have a central tendency of 7.8 to 8 percent, declining to 6.7 to 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014," said Bernanke.

Bernanke also said that if the U.S. economy should falter, the Federal Reserve will not hesitate to take new action to boost it, as it has the last couple years.

"So we have been very accommodative. And we remain prepared to do more as needed to make sure that this recovery continues and that inflation stays close to target. So in particular, we'll continue to assess, you know looking at the economic outlook, looking at the risks, whether or not unemployment is making sufficient progress towards its longer-run, normal level and whether inflation is remaining close to target," said Bernanke. "And if appropriate, and depending also on assessment of the costs and risks of additional policy action, we remain entirely prepared to take additional balancing actions if necessary to achieve our objectives."

Bernanke said consumer spending and business investment have grown, but the bank described the country's housing market as "depressed."