期刊名称：Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific
印刷版ISSN：0252-5704
出版年度：2001
卷号：1
出版社：ESCAP, Development Research and Policy Division (DRPAD)
摘要：The oft-predicted slowdown of the United
States economy once again failed to materialize in
2000. In fact, that economy surged ahead during
the first half of the year. Both fixed investment and
domestic demand remained buoyant during much of
2000. Fixed investment was underpinned by strong
business confidence and a large increase in ICTrelated
investment, while domestic demand was
reflected in the growth of retail sales of 6.5 per cent
in the year to September 2000. Inflationary pressures,
at 3.5 per cent in the year to September,
remained muted in 2000. However, there was
evidence of some tightening of labour markets in the
latter half of 2000. With a budget surplus of some
1.0 per cent of GDP, the burden of adjustment thus
fell primarily on monetary policy. The Federal
Reserve adopted a gradually tighter monetary policy
from mid-1999, causing interest rates to rise by 1.75
percentage points between June 1999 and May
2000. From the third quarter there were indications
of the economy slowing down, with third-quarter
growth at 2.4 per cent on an annualized basis
compared to 5.3 per cent over the previous 12
months and inflationary pressures abating with the
likelihood that interest rates had peaked. In fact,
there were signs that activity in the manufacturing
sector in November 2000 had slowed to its lowest
level since April 1991.1
