The Federal Reserve expects the US economy to improve in coming months, even as policymakers downgraded their outlook for all of this year and said the unemployment rate could approach 10 percent.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues continue to believe that business sales and factory production will begin to recover gradually during the second half of this year as US President Barack Obama’s stimulus package and the Fed’s aggressive efforts to lift the country out of recession take hold. They also pointed to signs that the recession’s grip was easing in the current quarter, according to documents released on Wednesday.
At the Fed’s last meeting on April 28 and April 29, policymakers opted not to take any new steps to shore up the economy after launching a US$1.2 trillion effort in March. But some members last month said those plans for buying government debt and mortgage securities may need to be expanded to speed a recovery.
PHOTO: AFP
“Participants noted some improvement in financial conditions in recent months, signs that consumer spending was leveling out and tentative indications that activity in the housing sector might be nearing its bottom,” the documents said.
Even with those positive signals, the economy’s performance for this year as a whole is expected to be dismal, partly reflecting the 6.1 percent annualized drop in economic activity in the first quarter.
Under the Fed’s new projections, the economy will shrink this year between 1.3 and 2 percent. The old forecast said the economy could contract between 0.5 and 1.3 percent.
The unemployment rate may rise as high as 9.6 percent, higher than the old forecast of 8.8 percent. The jobless rate bolted to 8.9 percent in April, the highest in a quarter-century.
The predictions are based on what the Fed calls its “central tendency,” which exclude the three highest and three lowest forecasts made by Fed officials. The Fed also gives a range of all the forecasts that showed some officials expect the jobless rate to hit 10 percent this year.
The Fed expects the economy to grow next year between 2 and 3 percent. It should then pick up more speed in 2011, growing between 3.5 and 4.8 percent, according to the “central tendency” projections. The unemployment rate should drop to between 9 and 9.5 percent next year. It should dip to between 7.7 and 8.5 percent in 2011.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
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