World News | Trump Says Has 'no Intention' of Firing Federal Reserve Chair
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has no plans to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, just days after his statement that he would like to terminate the head of the US central bank caused a stock market selloff.
Washington, Apr 23 (AP) President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has no plans to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, just days after his statement that he would like to terminate the head of the US central bank caused a stock market selloff.
“I have no intention of firing him,” Trump told reporters.
The US president had previously insinuated otherwise as he said he could fire Powell if he wanted to, having been frustrated by the Fed putting a pause on cuts to short-term interest rates.
Powell has said that Trump's tariffs are creating uncertainty about slower growth and higher inflationary pressures, while the president maintains that inflationary worries are essentially non-existent.
The president maintains that energy and grocery prices are falling, so the Fed should cut its benchmark rates because inflation is no longer a threat to the US economy, Trump said.
His remarks indicated that he still plans to use the bully pulpit to pressure a US central bank that is committed to resisting political pressure as part of its mandate to stabilise prices and maximise employment.
“It's all coming down,” Trump said. “The only thing that hasn't come down, but hasn't gone up much, are interest rates. And we think the Fed should lower the rate. We think that it's it's a perfect time to lower the rate. And we'd like to see our chairman be early or on time, as opposed to late. Late's not good.” (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)