U.S. growth won't be strong this year: Fed's Williams

CLAREMONT, Calif (Reuters) - U.S. economic growth is likely to remain slow this year, San Francisco Fed President John Williams said on Monday, despite recent stronger data on the jobs market.

"I'm sticking with my story that economic growth won't be that strong this year," Williams told reporters after a speech at Claremont McKenna College.

Continued high unemployment and low inflation could set the stage for a new round of Fed bond purchases, he told a group of professors and students earlier in the evening.

With 10-year Treasury yields already under 2 percent, there's a limit to how much more the Fed can stimulate the economy through asset purchases, he said.

But the example of Japan shows that rates can be pushed as low as 1 percent, he added.

(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by John Mair)