Fed sharply lowers forecast for 2012

From the Associated Press:

The Federal Reserve has sharply lowered its outlook for U.S. economic growth and thinks the unemployment rate won't fall much further this year.

...the Fed (now) says it expects the economy will grow no more than 2.4 percent this year. That's much slower than its forecast in April, when it predicted growth as fast as 2.9 percent. And it isn't much better than the 1.9 percent annual pace of growth in the first three months of 2012....

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits has risen about 5 percent in the past six weeks. And employers posted sharply fewer job openings in April compared to the previous month.

...consumers have pulled back on spending. Retail sales have fallen for the past two months....

Businesses also appear less confident about the economy... placing fewer orders at factories, which has slowed manufacturing output. A measure of companies' investment spending has dropped for two straight months.

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Link: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FED_FORECASTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-06-20-14-26-15