Business US Central Bank Holds Interest Rates Steady
时间：2019-01-06 作者：英语课 分类：VOA2004（上）--各类新闻
Business US Central Bank Holds Interest Rates Steady
Barry Wood
The United States central bank, the Federal Reserve, Wednesday announced that it is holding short-term interest rates steady.
The usual Federal Reserve statement on interest rates is more optimistic than it's been for several months. It says despite slow job growth, output is expanding briskly. It calls attention to rapid productivity growth and says future economic risks are now evenly balanced between inflation and deflation.
But financial markets view the statement as suggesting modest interest rate increases are coming in the months ahead. Stock prices fell sharply on the news and bond prices fell as yields on ten-year government securities rose sharply.
But Bob Benson, an economist 1 at Bank of America in St. Louis, believes higher interest rates would not be a bad thing.
"Even if they move it up to two percent by the end of the year, that is still not restrictive. That will not crimp corporate 2 profits. What we're going to see, however, is that the overall economy is going to slow down as it matures from a recovery phase to more of an expansion phase."
The U.S. economy grew at an eight percent annual rate in the 3rd quarter of last year and may have expanded at a five percent rate in the October to December period.
The Federal Reserve aggressively cut interest rates in 2001 to boost economic activity in the wake of the nine-eleven terrorist attacks and overall recession. There were additional rate cuts in 2002 and 2003.
注释：
Federal Reserve 美国联邦储备系统
short-term interest rates 短期利率
briskly [briskli] adv. 活泼地，精神勃勃地
inflation [in5fleiFEn] n. 通货膨胀
deflation [dI5fleIF(E)n] n. 通货紧缩
modest [5mCdist] adj. 适度的
bond [bCnd] n. 债券
yield [ji:ld] n. 投资获利，回报
security [sI5kjJErItI] n. 有价证券，债券
restrictive [ris5triktiv] adj. 限制性的
crimp [krimp] v. 阻碍
corporate [5kC:pErit] adj. 总体国家的，全体的
recovery phase 恢复阶段
expansion phase 扩张阶段
recession [ri5seFEn] n. 不景气，（工商业）衰退
cut [kQt] n. 削减，降低
- He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
- He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。