2012.05.09 18:09:00 *Deutsche Telekom Said To Talk To Metropcs On T-Mobile USA Merger -Bloomberg TV>DTE.XE

(This story has been posted on The Wall Street Journal Online's Real Time Economics blog at http://blogs.wsj.com/economics.) By Michael S. Derby The U.S. economy will continue to recover, but the pace won't be enough to bring the unemployment rate down quickly, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Sandra Pianalto said Wednesday. Speaking as part of a panel discussion in Lexington, Kentucky, the official said "it's going to take several years for us" to get the unemployment rate down to 6%, a level she considers full employment. The jobless rate stood at 8.1% in April. The voting member of the monetary policy setting Federal Open Market Committee didn't say anything about the monetary policy outlook. The concept of full employment is an important one for central bankers. When the unemployment rate goes below the "full" level it's believed inflation pressures will heat up, and that the Fed would have to run a more restrictive stance of monetary policy as a result. Economists and policymakers are debating whether the recession has caused a change in the full employment rate. In other comments, Pianalto said "the economy is recovering at a moderate pace." She added, "my forecast for this year is that the economy will continue to recover at a 2 1/2% or better rate." -For continuously updated news from The Wall Street Journal, see WSJ.com at http://wsj.com. (END) Dow Jones Newswires May 09, 2012 12:10 ET (16:10 GMT)