FOMC Minutes

www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomcminutes20120125.htm

Некоторые отрывки (выделения мои)

The information reviewed at the January 24-25 meeting indicated that U.S. economic activity continued to expand moderately, while global growth appeared to be slowing. Overall conditions in the labor market improved further, although the unemployment rate remained elevated.

The unemployment rate declined to 8.5 percent in December; however, both long-duration unemployment and the share of workers employed part time for economic reasons were still quite high.

Developments in Europe continued to be a central focus for investors over the intermeeting period as concerns persisted about the prospects for a durable solution to the European fiscal and financial difficulties. Nevertheless, market sentiment toward Europe appeared to brighten a bit, and U.S. economic data releases were somewhat better than investors expected, leading to some improvement in conditions in financial markets.