Fed officials estimate that the economy is already growing at something like the maximum sustainable pace. Fed officials predicted in December that the economy would expand 2.1 percent this year, slightly faster than the 1.8 percent pace they regard as sustainable. Fed officials, by contrast, see the pace of job growth as unsustainable. The faster growth is good news for the economy, indicating that adults who gave up on finding jobs are returning to work. But these problems, in the view of Fed officials, cannot be addressed by holding down the Fed’s benchmark rate.

Source: New York Times March 12, 2017 20:26 UTC