Trump Says a ‘Small Rate Cut Is Not Enough’ Ahead of Fed Meeting
Trump has been repeatedly calling on policy makers to reduce borrowing costs after increasing them in 2018.
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump renewed his attack on the Federal Reserve ahead of its meeting this week, complaining it “probably will do very little” to counteract actions by Europe and China to ease monetary policy and declaring “a small rate cut is not enough.”
U.S. central bankers are widely expected to lower interest rates by a quarter-percentage point when they gather Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington.
“The Fed has made all of the wrong moves. A small rate cut is not enough, but we will win anyway!” he tweeted on Monday. “The Fed ‘raised’ way too early and way too much.”
Read more: All the Trump Quotes on Powell as Fed Remains in the Firing Line
The tweets were the latest Trump attack on the politically independent central bank over rate hikes in 2018 amid criticism that the president’s trade policies have undermined business confidence.
He’s also complained that the euro zone and China have weakened their currencies against the dollar to boost exports, and called on the Fed to respond.
Trump told reporters Friday that he had not ruled out doing “something” on the dollar after his economic adviser Larry Kudlow earlier declared the administration had taken intervention to weaken the currency off the table.
While data on the U.S. economy have been generally solid, policy makers have said they’re monitoring the risks of slowing global growth and elevated trade tensions. Fed officials are in a quiet period on public comment ahead of the gathering.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi last week signaled the ECB will resume easing policy this year as he declared the euro area’s economic outlook was growing “worse and worse.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Condon in Washington at ccondon4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Alister Bull, Scott Lanman
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