Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Narayana Kocherlakota forecast that U.S. gross domestic product will grow at a 2.5 percent to 3 percent rate this year and next.

“Given my forecast of moderate GDP growth, I expect the unemployment rate to continue to fall slowly,” Kocherlakota said in a statement to local media posted on the Minneapolis Fed’s website today.

Kocherlakota predicted joblessness will fall to about 7.7 percent by the fourth quarter of this year and to about 7 percent by the end of 2013. The rate declined to 8.3 percent in January, the lowest since February 2009.

Inflation will be about 2 percent this year and climb to 2.3 percent in 2013 “as monetary policy remains highly accommodative,” Kocherlakota said in the statement.