Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell dismissed the possibility that President Trump’s criticism factored into the central bank’s decision Wednesday not to raise interest rates.
“We’re always going to do what we think is the right thing,” Powell said at a press conference following the announcement. “We’re never going to take political considerations into account or discuss them.”
“We’re human, we make mistakes, but we won’t make mistakes of character or integrity,” he said.
The Fed decided Wednesday to hold its interest rate target at a range of 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent and indicated that it won’t pursue further rate hikes this year — a change to its previous guidance.
The Fed previously had enacted regular rate hikes throughout 2017 and 2018. In 2018, though, Trump increasingly objected to the higher interest rates, saying that they were hurting economic growth and undercutting his agenda.
When asked about the timing — the Fed stopping rate hikes after receiving criticism from Trump — Powell responded that the two had nothing to do with each other.
“What we care about, and really the only thing we care about, at the Fed is doing our job for the American people and using our tools appropriately,” he said.
