US President Donald Trump renewed his criticism of the Federal Reserve on Monday for being slow in cutting interest rates after the central bank's chairman said it was monitoring the coronavirus crisis to determine appropriate action
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2020) US President Donald Trump renewed his criticism of the Federal Reserve on Monday for being slow in cutting interest rates after the central bank's chairman said it was monitoring the coronavirus crisis to determine appropriate action.
"As usual, Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve are slow to act," Trump said in a tweet. "Germany and others are pumping money into their economies. Other Central Banks are much more aggressive. The US should have, for all of the right reasons, the lowest Rate. We don't, putting us at a competitive disadvantage. We should be leading, not following!"
Powell said in a statement on Friday that while the fundamentals of the US economy were strong, the Fed was prepared to use the tools necessary to preserve the country's more than decade-long growth amid the evolving pandemic threat.
Powell in his statement last week said the Fed was "closely monitoring developments and their implications for the economic outlook."
His statement came as US stocks suffered their worst weekly loss in October 2008, when the financial crisis then was just erupting.
The Fed last cut rates in December, ending a three-month long easing cycle where it trimmed the key US lending rate by a total 75 basis points. Traders on the money market are betting on 50 basis points cut this time, when the Fed meets March 17-18.
Trump is seeking reelection in November and is particularly sensitive to the performance of the stock market, which he regularly tweets about as a measure of his success in office. The president has criticised the Fed and Powell on numerous occasions in the past for being slow to resort to monetary easing, saying the United States should have negative rates if possible. Powell has said such an idea will not work for a vibrant economy like America's.
