Yellen Hoping for 3 Percent Growth in GDP for 2014

An improvement over last year

Janet Yellen, who is set to take over as head of the Federal Reserve next month, is "hopeful" that U.S. economic growth will accelerate in 2014 to 3 percent or more and persistently low inflation will move up toward the central bank's target, according to a Time magazine interview released Thursday.

"I think we'll see stronger growth this year," Yellen said in the interview, released online ahead of the Time edition's Jan. 20 publishing date. "Most of my colleagues on the Fed's policymaking committee and I are hopeful that the first digit (of GDP growth) could be 3 rather than 2."

U.S. gross domestic product growth has averaged 2.6 percent through the first three quarters of 2013, but appears to have gathered momentum in the second half the year. Third-quarter GDP growth was recently revised up to 4.1 percent, though it is not expected to have sustained that pace for the fourth quarter.