A fly on the wall of the US Fed

ECONOMIC activity had been expanding moderately in recent months.

The pace of job gains had been solid and the unemployment rate had declined, with a range of labour market indicators suggesting that underutilisation of labour resources had continued to diminish.

Participants generally viewed the incoming data as confirming their earlier assessment that the weak report on real GDP (gross domestic product) in the first quarter reflected transitory factors and expected that real economic activity would continue to expand at a moderate pace over the balance of the year, leading to further improvement in labour market conditions.