The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that the U.S. economy grew faster than expected in the second quarter as a resilient labour market supported consumer spending, while businesses boosted investment in equipment and built more factories, potentially keeping a much-feared recession at bay. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe reports that despite the broad-based quickening in growth reported by the Commerce Department on Thursday, inflation subsided considerably last quarter, with one of the key measures tracked by the Federal Reserve for its 2-per-cent target posting its slowest increase in more than two years. Economists believed the U.S. central bank's fastest interest-rate hiking cycle since the 1980s was drawing to a close, though strong domestic demand could see it keeping borrowing costs higher and for longer. The Fed on Wednesday raised its policy rate by 25 basis points to the 5.25-per-cent to 5.5-per-cent range. Loyola Marymount University economics professor Sung Won Sohn says: "Despite the Fed's campaign to slow growth and snuff out inflation, no recession is in sigh. Stop raising rates for now." JPMorgan economist Michael Feroli sees favourable supply-side developments that could have legs.