sentences: during the period that preceded the current interest rate decision, the us federal reserve updated its 2011 growth forecast from a range of 3.43-3.9 percent that had been published in january, to a range of only 3.1-3.3 percent, against the background of weak growth figures for the first quarter, as well as its forecast of the unemployment rate from 8.9 percent to 8.5 percent, while noting that it expects slow development of any sort of lowering of the unemployment rate.