According to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, the US economy will start picking up in the second half of the year and will experience moderate growth. As he's been saying for a long time, the major concern is inflation. The Fed "has consistently stated that upside risks to inflation are its predominant" concern, Bernanke said.
Bernanke added that the ecomony will overall grow a slower rate than expected as the housing slump will continue to have an impact. The housing slump especially affects the economy because consumers have used refinancing to purchase consumer goods for a number of years.
He also said that next year the economy should pick up and growth increase at a faster pace.
With the economic report to Capitol Hill, Bernanke commented that concerning inflation, prices outside of energy and food, should start to decline over the next year.
Economists overall believe interest rates should remain at 5.25 percent for the rest of the year.
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