Yellen tells Senate Democrats U.S. economy looks good: media reports

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Thursday offered an upbeat assessment on the U.S. economy in a meeting with Senate Democrats, even as she noted risks from overseas, according to media reports. According to The Wall Street Journal, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia told reporters after a private luncheon with Yellen that she said "things are going well" for the U.S. economy. "She feels the economy is strong, a lot is good," Manchin said, according to the Journal. New York Senator Chuck Schumer told Bloomberg: "Her message is that the economy’s getting better but there’s still a ways to go in terms of job creation. "That worry seems, in her mind, to be paramount and that's why she is not going to raise rates immediately," he said. The meeting came a day after Fed policymakers upgraded their assessment of the U.S. economy, while acknowledging that international developments could play a role in their decision on when to raise benchmark borrowing costs from near zero. "She was generally pretty positive about fundamentals here, you know some concern about the foreign situation,” Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia said, according to the Journal. Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois called Yellen's comments "very positive," according to both reports. (Reporting by Timothy Ahmann; Editing by Leslie Adler)