The US economy and job market continue to strengthen, the Federal Reserve said, leaving the door open for a possible interest rate hike when central bank policymakers next meet in September, Reuters reported. Following their latest two-day policy meeting, Fed officials said they felt the economy had overcome a first-quarter slowdown and was “expanding moderately” despite a downturn in the energy sector and headwinds from overseas. They nodded in particular to the “solid job gains” seen in recent months. “On balance, a range of labor market indicators suggest that underutilization of labor resources has diminished since early this year,” the Fed said in a policy statement that kept rates unchanged.
