英语听力精选进阶版 14340

（单词翻译）

Fed scales back stimulus¹ effort

Summary

20 December 2013

The US central bank, the Federal Reserve, says it will next month begin scaling back a key strategy to stimulate² the economy because of a stronger jobs market. The Fed said that from January it would reduce its spending on US government bonds by $10bn a month.

Reporter:

Mark Gregory

Report

The Federal Reserve has been pumping money into the US economy by buying $85bn of bonds each month. From January, it will cut the figure to $75bn. And it has signalled that it will further reduce the scale of its bond buying if the economy continues to improve. 

It's a small but highly significant step towards unwinding the extraordinary measures put in place to support the economy through six years of deep crisis. 

The decision follows a run of data pointing to sustained if weak recovery and - the key factor - an improving jobs market. 

But the Fed hasn't entirely³ kicked away the monetary⁴ props⁵. It plans to keep short term lending rates at near 0% until it sees at least another 0.5% drop in the unemployment rate. 

Investors⁶ responded by sending share prices higher. There was relief at the end to uncertainty⁷ over when the Fed, as has seemed inevitable⁸ for months, would start tapering⁹ off its monetary life support.