This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语经济报道。
The season for buying Christmas gifts is the busiest time for most stores and online retailers in the United States. Final numbers for the holiday season including after-Christmas sales will not be known for a while. But a report this week on retail sales in November suggested that economic growth may be gaining speed.
圣诞销售季是美国大部分商场和网上零售商最忙碌的时候，包括圣诞后期销售在内的最终的圣诞假期销售数据暂时不得而知。但本周，一份关于11月零售额报告表明，经济增速可能开始提速。
The Commerce Department said sales increased for the fifth month in a row. They grew by eight-tenths of one percent over October.
美国商务部称，零售额连续5个月保持增长。十月份零售额增长了0.8%。
But Tuesday's report came the same day the central bank said the economy is not growing fast enough to reduce unemployment.
但本周二这份报告出台的同一天，美国央行表示，经济增速不足以减少失业。
So, policy makers at the Federal Reserve voted to continue a program of buying government bonds. That program, launched in November, could inject six hundred billion dollars into the economy.
因此美联储的相关政策制定者投票决定，继续购买美国国债。该方案于11月份推出，将向美国经济中注入六千亿美元。
The aim is to increase economic growth by lowering long-term interest rates. That would reduce borrowing costs for businesses and individuals.
这项措施的主要目的是通过降低长期利率，促进经济增长。该措施将降低企业和个人的借贷成本。
But long-term rates have risen since the Fed launched its latest program of so-called quantitative easing, known as "QE2."
但自美联储推出这项被成为“量化宽松”的方案以来，长期利率开始上升。
The rates are up in part because investors are concerned about government policies. But experts say investors may also be more hopeful about the economy and looking for investments with higher returns than Treasury securities.
利率上升的部分原因是由于投资者对政府政策的担忧。但专家表示，投资者也可能对美国经济抱更大希望，并寻求比美国国债回报更高的投资项目。
One way to get a sense of how Americans feel about the economy is through retail sales. Consumer demand drives about seventy percent of the nation's economic activity.
零售额是获得美国人对经济看法的途径之一，消费需求推动了美国经济活动的70%。
The National Retail Federation says its members employ twenty-five million people in the retail and services industry. Those businesses reported almost two and a half trillion dollars in sales last year.
全国零售商联合会称，其会员在零售和服务行业雇佣了2500万名员工。这些企业去年销售额达到了2.5万亿美元。
Terry Lundgren is chief executive of Macy's, the company that owns Macy's and Bloomingdales department stores.
特里·伦德格伦是梅西公司首席执行官，该公司旗下有梅西百货公司和布鲁明代尔百货公司。
TERRY LUNDGREN: "Retail and restaurants represent one in five jobs in America. So if we do well, we grow, then we're going to be the ones that will start to lead us into a recovery and out of the difficulty that we've had in terms of job hiring, unemployment and all of those challenging issues that relate to that."
伦德格伦：“零售业及饮食业提供了美国1/5的就业岗位。因此如果我们（零售业）发展得好，我们将成为其中一员，引领经济复苏，走出现有招聘、失业以及其他相关难题的困局。”
The kinds of stores where sales are up also says something about the economy. Stores with the lowest prices do well in hard economic times. But the retail federation said at the end of November that discounters had fewer shoppers this year. Stores that sell jewelry and other higher-priced items have seen sales grow.
各类销量上涨的商场也体现了美国经济。廉价零售商在经济困难时期生意很好。但零售商联合会称，今年11月底这些廉价零售商顾客减少，而珠宝和其他贵重物品的零售商销量上升。
Another change: Americans are less willing to buy on credit. Over forty percent of holiday shoppers said they planned to mainly use debit cards instead of credit cards. Instead of borrowing money, debit cards take money directly from a bank account.
另一个变化是：美国人的信贷购买意愿降低。超过40%的假日购物者表示他们计划使用储蓄卡购物，而不是使用信用卡。与信用卡的借贷不同，储蓄卡是直接提取银行存款。