国际英语新闻:Central Bank Says US Economy Expanding 'Moderately'

The central bank said that overall inflation expectations "have remained stable," at about 2 percent, and that increased energy costs will have only a temporary effect.

In recent weeks, there have been mixed signals about the American economy, with some pointing to modest growth and better times, and others emphasizing how sluggish the recovery has been from the recession that engulfed the country in 2008 and 2009.

Nearly 13 million American workers remain unemployed, with many of them jobless for extended periods. The jobless rate has fallen in recent months, but is considerably above the 5 percent level that is more normal in the U.S.

Still, many U.S. corporations have reported sharply higher profits. The world's most valuable company, U.S.-based technology giant Apple, said Tuesday its quarterly profits almost doubled during the first three months of the year. This was attributed largely to continued demand for the company's popular iPhones. 

The state of the U.S. economy is the prime issue in the presidential election campaign, heading to the November contest.

The presumptive Republican nominee, one-time venture capitalist Mitt Romney, has called for less government regulation and lower taxes to sharply boost the economy. He said that President Barack Obama, a Democrat, deserves no credit for recent gains in the economy and that any advances have occurred despite, not because of, his policies.

Obama frequently has told supporters that the economy is improving, although not as fast as he would like. He has noted that the country's businesses have filled more than 600,000 new jobs since the first of the year. He says the country cannot afford to weaken government controls designed to curb corporate excesses that contributed to the economic downturn, the worst in the United States in seven decades.