The US Federal Reserve's monetary policy committee says economic growth "appears to have picked up" in the United States since the Fed's last meeting in April, according to dpa. At the same time however the job market slowed, which led to the Fed's decision to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged, the Fed says in its statement on monetary policy. Most of the Fed meeting participants expect the central bank's benchmark interest rate - which was hiked in December after seven years at an unprecedented near-zero range - to remain below 1 per cent through the end of 2016. A majority expect the rate to top 1.5 per cent by the end of 2017, according to a table of projections by the Fed's 17 participants.
