Business US Central Bank Holds Interest Rates Steady（在线收听）

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 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 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