Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said the U.S. economy is gaining momentum this year as consumers have become more confident about the expansion.

“The economy appears to be gaining some traction,” Lockhart said in a talk at Georgetown University in Washington. “The economy has looked better and better” as more reports have come in. “The public in general is beginning to get more confident about the outlook and that translates into more activity.”

“We would expect growth to come in in the range of 2.5 to 3 percent,” Lockhart said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Steve Matthews in Atlanta at smatthews@bloomberg.net;

Jeff Kearns in Washington at jkearns3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz in Washington at cwellisz@bloomberg.net