koalabear
~Armed and Fuzzy~
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2001
- Posts
- 101,964
Spin?
Fed cuts growth forecast, sees higher unemployment
(AFP) – 6 hours ago
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve on Wednesday slashed its US economic growth forecast through 2013, as it raised its estimate on unemployment.
After announcing monetary policy essentially unchanged in the face of economic growth that had "strengthened somewhat" in the third quarter, the Fed released a set of projections that included 2014 estimates for the first time.
Gross domestic product growth is expected to increase only modestly -- 1.6 to 1.7 percent -- this year, before picking up to a pace of between 2.5 and 2.9 percent next year, according to the central bank's latest economic projections.
That marked a sharp downward revision from the Fed's June estimates of GDP growth of 2.7-2.9 percent in 2011 and 3.3-3.7 percent in 2012.
For 2013, GDP expansion was slashed to 3.0 percent to 3.5 percent, down from 3.5 percent to 4.2 percent.
"The pace of progress is likely to be frustratingly slow," Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said at a news conference after a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee that produced no new change in monetary policy.
The Fed projected the painfully high unemployment rate would be in the range of 9.0-9.1 percent in the current fourth quarter, instead of the rate of 8.6-8.9 percent seen less than five months ago.
For the 2012 fourth quarter, the jobless rate estimates were upwardly revised a half a percentage point or more, to a range between 8.5 percent and 8.7 percent.
The Fed, whose dual mandate is full employment and price stability, said that inflation was on a downward trend, following a spike in commodity prices.
Consumer inflation would end the year 0.4 percentage points higher than previously estimated, the Fed said, at between 2.7 percent and 2.9 percent.
The Fed slightly narrowed the prior estimate of the 2012 inflation, to 1.4 percent to 2.0 percent, and left unchanged the 1.5-2.0 percent numbers for 2013.
For 2014, the Fed projected GDP growth roughly in line with the prior year, at 3.0 percent to 3.9 percent.
The unemployment rate was seen as falling to a range of 6.8 percent to 7.7 percent, while inflation would hold steady at 1.5 percent to 2.0 percent.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/af...docId=CNG.b1ecd2f45c2af3823a72fc1471df02dc.c1
MORON gets confused easily in his lib fits.

