WASHINGTON, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Federal
Reserve announced Thursday that the amount of money it will auction to
commercial banks in June will be raised to 225 billion dollars from 150 billion
in May as part of its ongoing effort to ease credit crisis.
The Fed said it will conduct three auctions through
its Term Auction Facility (TAF) next months, with each one offering 75 billion
dollars in short-term cash loans. Banks can bid for a slice of the available
funds.
The new round of auctions will be conducted on June
2, June 16 and June 30.
The U.S. central bank has so far held 12 auctions, or
twice a month, aimed at injecting more money into the banking system since
mid-December 2007, when it established its TAF to deliver short-term funds to
cash-strapped banks in hopes of keeping them lending.
The new facility was developed as the Fed was trying
to prevent the credit crunch from deteriorating.
In a separate program, the Fed on Thursday auctioned
16.4 billion dollars in safe Treasury securities to investment firms through its
Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF), another effort aimed at easing credit
crunch.
That auction drew bids less than the 25 billion
dollars being made available, which analysts say could be viewed as a sign of
some improvement in credit conditions.
By establishing the TSLF, which began March 27, the
Fed temporarily allows investment firms to obtain emergency loans directly from
the central bank, a privilege that only commercial banks had been granted.
The U.S. central bank is expected to focus more on
loan and security auctions and other efforts to help banks and investment firms
overcome any credit problems after having cut interest rates aggressively since
last September.
NEW YORK, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street rose Thursday as
oil prices fell sharply and the U.S. government said the economy grew faster
than previously estimated last quarter.
Crude prices declined more than 4 U.S. dollars per
barrel as the dollar rose against major currencies. Full story
WASHINGTON, May 21 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Federal
Reserve cut its projection for the nation's economic growth this year on
Wednesday but signaled it would not be inclined to cut interest rates
further.
The central bank now forecasts that the economy will
grow at a pace between just 0.3 percent to 1.2 percent in 2008, lower than its
prior estimate of 1.3 percent to 2.1 percent growth for the year. Full story
WASHINGTON, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. economy grew
at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the first quarter of this year, faster than
the 0.6 percent pace estimated a month ago, the Commerce Department reported
Thursday.
The first-quarter growth rate for gross domestic
product (GDP) followed growth paces of 0.6 percent in the final three months of
2007 and 4.9 percent in the third quarter of last year. Full story
