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Unemployment Rate 2012

January 25, 2012 by · Comments Off on Unemployment Rate 2012 

Unemployment Rate 2012, The Federal Reserve has downgraded its outlook for U.S. economic growth this year but is slightly more optimistic about the unemployment rate. The Fed expects the economy to grow between 2.2 percent and 2.7 percent in 2012, according to its updated economic forecasts released Wednesday. That’s down from November’s forecast of between 2.5 percent and 2.9 percent.

Many economists expect Europe will suffer a recession this year, which will slow U.S. growth. Earlier Wednesday, the Fed noted the weak but growing economy when it said it doesn’t plan to raise its benchmark interest rate until late 2014. And some members wanted to push that back even further, according to new interest rate projections released with the quarterly forecasts.

Still, the Fed said it expects unemployment to fall low as 8.2 percent. That’s an improvement from November’s bottom rate of 8.5 percent.

In December, the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent – the lowest level in nearly three years – after the sixth straight month of solid hiring.

Inflation has been relatively tame and the Fed doesn’t see that changing over the next three years.

And for the first time, the Fed offered an official target for inflation – 2 percent – in a statement of its long-term policy goals. It had previously indicated that inflation between 1.7 percent and 2 percent was acceptable.

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