Economy on `Solid Track,’ Inflation Still Under Control

The U.S. economy has plenty of room to add jobs without stretching the workforce and fueling inflation, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President William Poole said yesterday. The U.S. economy added 211,000 jobs in March and 590,000 in the first three months of 2006, the strongest first-quarter gain in six years, the Labor Department said yesterday. The unemployment rate matched a four-year low of 4.7 percent.

As long as the economy’s growth is pretty steady, we’re not going to end up with bottleneck problems,” Poole said. Companies ought to be able to adjust to any supply constraints they encounter with the economy forecast to grow about 3.5 percent this year, Poole said.

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