another signal that a substantial amount of slack remains in the labor market. ,nflation has been quite even as the economy has continued to expand. some of the factors contributing to the softness in inflation the the past year, such as declines in nonoil import prices , will probably be transitory. important they, measures of longer run inflation expectations have remained stable. that said, the federal open market committee recognizes that inflation persistently below two percent, the rate that the committee judges to be most consistent with its dual mandate , could pose risk to economic performance, and we are monitoring inflation developments closely. economichead, i expect activity will expand at a somewhat faster pace this year the last year, that unemployment rate will continue to decline gradually and that inflation will begin to move up towards two percent. a faster rate of economic growth this year should be supported by reduced restraint from changes in fiscal policy. gains in household net worth from increases in home prices and equity values affirming our in economic growt

the national unemployment rate and 6.3% has dropped almost 4 percentage points. .nflation is low it is well under two percent. there's no sign of a rise in inflation. the first quarter was lower than anticipated. helped in about the economic recovery. i think congress did some good news. i think we should do more to the chairman has outlined some of them. the fed will lower interest rates near zero at the end of 2000 and eight and said recently he will keep rates low for a time.erable period of low interest rates have helped stimulate the economy by keeping borrowing costs affordable for businesses and consumers. they were reducing their purchases under quantitative easing. last month announced they would further reduce their purchases to 45 million each month. it has been always understood these efforts would be scaled back as economy strengthened. economic activity has picked up recently. the short term unemployment rate has fallen to close to its previous session level. this is high on her list of priorities. despite some good news recently about job growth, there are still 3.5 mill