President Trump says the U.S. economy could have grown much more quickly last year if the Federal Reserve hadn’t raised interest rates.
“We would have been over 4 [percent] if they didn’t do all of the interest hikes and they tightened,” Trump said in a Fox Business Network interview that aired Friday.
The U.S. economy grew by 2.9 percent last year, and from the fourth quarter of 2017 to the fourth quarter of 2018, growth was 3.1 percent.
“3.1 [percent] may be the best in 14 years. I’m not happy with it. We should have been much higher,” the president said.
[Previous coverage: Trump intensifies attack on Fed: ‘They’re raising interest rates too fast’]
Officials with the Federal Reserve indicated Wednesday they would not raise rates at all this year and announced they intended to stop shrinking the central bank’s balance sheet by September.
When asked if he thought his public criticism of the Fed influenced the central bank, Trump said, “I hope I didn’t influence, frankly, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t care I influenced or not. I was right.”
Trump often touts the strength of the economy as one of the achievements of his administration, including GDP growth and the low unemployment rate.
