VOA慢速英语:美联储对美国经济复苏表示乐观

[00:00.00]From VOA Learning English, [00:02.61]this is the Economic Report. [00:05.72]The head of the U.S. central bank has told Congress [00:10.67]that the economy is improving after very slow growth [00:14.89]in the first three-month of the year. [00:17.39]U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's report [00:22.09]came soon after the government [00:24.45]announced April's employment numbers. [00:27.21]They showed the biggest monthly gain in two years. [00:32.26]"Looking ahead, [00:33.93]I expect that economic activity will expand [00:37.38]at a somewhat faster pace this year than it did last year, [00:41.03]that the unemployment rate will continue to decline gradually, [00:45.54]and that inflation will begin to move up [00:48.70]toward two percent," said Yellen. [00:49.85]However, the central bank chief remained concerned [00:54.11]about employment and international tensions. [00:57.02]She said the threat of conflict in other countries, [01:01.54]and intensifying financial problems [01:04.95]in some developing countries could hurt the world economy. [01:09.96]"Currently one prominent risk is that adverse developments abroad, [01:16.42]such as heightened geopolitical tensions [01:19.52]or an intensification of financial stresses [01:23.63]in emerging market economies could undermine confidence [01:28.14]in the global economic recovery," said Yellen. [01:30.29]The Federal Reserve, or Fed for short, [01:34.20]has been cutting back its efforts to support the economy. [01:38.40]The Fed has reduced or tapered its government bond buying activities. [01:45.27]They went from $85 billion five months ago to about $45 billion now. [01:53.95]Bond buying by the central bank puts more money into the economy. [02:00.15]And it has helped keep interest rates near historically low levels. [02:06.05]This program called "quantitative easing" [02:10.31]is set to end in the last three-month of this year. [02:14.56]But Janet Yellen said borrowing rates would remain low for, [02:20.87]in her words, a "considerable amount of time". [02:24.84]Earlier, the U.S. Labor Department said [02:29.40]the economy added 288,000 jobs in April. [02:34.26]That brought the unemployment rate to its lowest level in five years. [02:40.97]The employment news balances the Commerce Department's announcement [02:47.13]that economic growth was very slow in the first three-month of the year, [02:52.53]the economy grew at a rate of one-tenth of one percent. [02:57.96]Experts blamed an unusually cold winter for hurting demand. [03:03.56]However, economists say job gains were better than expected. [03:09.04]But others are concerned about the quality of jobs. [03:13.75]Mark Hamrick of Bankrate.com says the jobs are not pushing up hourly wages. [03:20.91]He says that the building, professional services [03:25.47]and healthcare industries added jobs, [03:28.44]but income gains were disappointing. [03:31.85]And that's the VOA Learning English Economics Report. [03:36.31]Find more of our programs at chinavoa.com. [03:44.01]I'm Mario Ritter.

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