In a speech to the Chamber of Commerce in Providence, Rhode Island, Federal Reserve (Fed) chairperson Janet Yellen said the Fed will likely raise interest rates this year, as long as economic activity picks up.
Ms Yellen added that from there, the rate of future increases would be gradual.
Regarding the disappointing US economic data for the first three months of 2015, she said transitory factors were mostly to blame for this weakness and that the economy should improve throughout the year.
Furthermore, she predicted that the labour market in the US is now “approaching full strength” and unemployment should fall to close to five per cent by the end of the year.
In the meantime, eurozone economic confidence remained unchanged at its second highest level in nearly four years in May despite the ongoing Greek crisis, survey results from the European Commission showed last week.
The economic sentiment index held steady at 103.8 in May, while it was expected to fall to 103.5. This was the second highest score since July 2011.
Meanwhile, the reading for April was revised up from 103.7.
The stabilisation in sentiment resulted from increasing confidence in the services, retail trade and construction sectors being offset by consumer confidence decreasing for a second month in a row.
The EU has forecast the 19-nation currency bloc to grow by 1.5 per cent this year and 1.9 per cent in 2016.
Finally, the British economy grew as initially estimated in the first quarter of this year, a second estimate published by the Office for National Statistics showed last week.
GDP in the UK expanded by 0.3 per cent in the first quarter.
This was weaker than the 0.6 per cent recorded in the previous quarter and the slowest growth since the fourth quarter of 2012.
On a yearly basis, GDP growth eased to 2.4 per cent from three per cent in the previous quarter. Both sequential and annual growth figures came in line with the initial estimate published towards the end of April.
This report was compiled by Bank of Valletta plc for general information purposes only.