“Economic activity has been expanding moderately,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement Wednesday in Washington. “The pace of job gains picked up,” it said, and “underutilization of labor resources diminished somewhat” since their last meeting in April.
Separately, Fed officials maintained their forecast for the benchmark interest rate at the end of 2015, while lowering it for next year.
Policy makers predicted the rate will rise to 0.625 percent this year, according to their median estimate. That implies two quarter-point increases. Next year, they expect the rate to climb to 1.625 percent, lower than a March forecast of 1.875 percent.
A rebound in job growth is giving Fed officials reason to look beyond a first-quarter economic slowdown as they consider when to tighten policy. At the same time, inflation remains below their target, and central bankers say the timing of a rate increase depends on how economic data unfold.
“The committee expects inflation to rise gradually toward 2 percent over the medium term as the labor market improves further and the transitory effects of earlier declines in energy and import prices dissipate,” according to the statement.
Sumber : ewfpro.com
