Brighter Time for Stores This Christmas Season
16 December 2010
Shoppers walk in front of a bus with a huge clothing advertisement on Black Friday. The Friday after the Thanksgiving holiday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
The season for buying Christmas gifts is the busiest time for most stores and online retailers in the United States. Final numbers for the holiday season including after-Christmas sales will not be known for a while. But a report this week on retail sales in November suggested that economic growth may be gaining speed.
The Commerce Department said sales increased for the fifth month in a row. They grew by eight-tenths of one percent over October.
But Tuesday's report came the same day the central bank said the economy is not growing fast enough to reduce unemployment.
So, policy makers at the Federal Reserve voted to continue a program of buying government bonds. That program, launched in November, could inject six hundred billion dollars into the economy.
The aim is to increase economic growth by lowering long-term interest rates. That would reduce borrowing costs for businesses and individuals.
But long-term rates have risen since the Fed launched its latest program of so-called quantitative easing, known as "QE2."
The rates are up in part because investors are concerned about government policies. But experts say investors may also be more hopeful about the economy and looking for investments with higher returns than Treasury securities.
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