Lacker predicted the U.S. economy will grow by about 2 percent to 2.5 percent next year, and that there is no need of an additional stimulus to the economy because inflation is expected to meet central bank goals. Because the U.S. economy has improved a bit recently, and the unemployment rate declined to 8.6 per cent last month, many economists are now forecasting that the economic growth will rise to around 3 per cent by the last quarter of 2012. Despite the optimism, the US Federal Reserve repeated its position that the nations' economy would continue slow growth over several following quarters and that the recent cooling in retail prices will probably be transitory just like the temporary rise in prices earlier in the year. Lacker said "Despite this year's run-up, I believe the inflation outlook is reasonably good, although I still view the risks to inflation as tilted to the upside."
Things were not as optimistic at the Bank of America, where the chief executive officer Brian T. Moynihan, said that many American companies are not quite so certain that there will be any coming opportunities to make big investments because "2012 will be another year that's a grind in the economy." Moynihan also said he expects the US economy to expand only by about 2.1 per cent in 2012 mainly because the labor market will not improve by much in the coming year alone.
Even though the Federal Open Market Committee went on record saying that the economy was expanding moderately despite some apparent slowing in overall global growth, market strains still pose enough significant downside risks to prompt Federal Reserve chairman Ben S. Bernanke to say that an additional stimulus package like buying mortgage bonds or changing the way the Federal Reserve communicates its policy goals to the public still remains on the table as a viable option. Regardless of the differences of opinion, the latest market data has caused some economists to put on a somewhat happier face and raise their forecasts for fourth-quarter growth in the U.S. this year.