President Donald Trump led Federal Reserve officials to the task after they left interest rates without changes after their first policy meeting since the position resumed.
“Because Jay Powell and the Fed could not stop the problem they created with inflation, I will unleashed the production of American energy, cutting regulation, re -quilibrium of international trade and reviving US manufacturing,” he wrote on his real social platform , referring to President of the Jerome Powell Federal Reserve.
“If the Fed had spent less time in Dei, gender ideology, ‘green’ energy and false climate change, inflation would never have been a problem,” he said.
The president’s criticism occurs days after increasing pressure on those responsible for formulating policies to promote the lowest rates, extending their habit of advertising their views on monetary policy, something that US presidents have avoided for a long time Maintain the autonomy of politics.
But the Central Bank chose to sit hard for now.
In their press release, announcing the decision, which analysts generally analyze the signs of the way ahead, Fed officials had a more cautious tone in inflation. They eliminated part of a line in their previous release saying that inflation “has progressed towards” a 2%objective, pointing in Wednesday’s statement only “remains elevated.”
Powell said at a press conference after the announcement that recent inflation data looked “good”, but “we are not going to interpret too good or two bad [inflation] Readings “.
He also told reporters early Wednesday, before Trump’s social post, that he would not comment “at all about what the president said” about interest rates. “The public must be sure that we will continue doing our job as we have always done.”
Powell said he has not had any direct contact with the president. “Many investigations show [independence is] The best way for a central bank to work, ”he added.
The three main stock rates closed the heels of the decision, which leaves the rates of uncomfortable interest for many borrowers with everything, from cars for cars to mortgages. Consumer prices averaged 2.9% more in December than the same period of the previous year, an annual rate that has surrounded the months higher than the objective of 2% of the Fed.
Trump has positioned himself as the solution to persistent failures in what analysts are widely agreeing is a solid economy.
In a videoconference speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, Trump said “would demand that interest rates fall immediately.”
“I know the interest rates much better than them,” said Fed officials last week, shortly after telling the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, by videoconference that “would demand that interest rates be immediately falling.” Trump also recently increased his criticisms to Powell, whom he appointed in 2017 and has promised not to try to eliminate before Powell’s mandate in May 2026.
The economy of the United States has changed dramatically since Trump left office in January 2021, with the country still grabbed by the Covid-19 pandemic and bitter disputes about blocking measures to combat it.
After an increase in the era of prices pandemic that devastated the finances of many consumers, inflation has been drastically reduced. Unemployment reduced 4.1% in December from 4.2% the previous month after employers added more than a quarter of a million jobs, helping to reduce concerns about a labor market that has remained resistant even as it cools .
Consumer spending has remained stable despite the increase in household approach to value. The gross domestic product, largely driven by the consumption of goods and services, has grown by at least 3% for two consecutive quarters, federal researchers said in December.
Analysts see these and other metrics as signs that the economy is still humming despite the difficult “last mile” of inflation struggle, which would reduce the need for a new impulse of the Fed still. The Central Bank has been motivated in two rate cuts this year after reducing them for three consecutive meetings, reducing its reference rate of a high range of 20 years of 5.25%-5.5%to the current 4.25%-4.5%.
“We believe that disinflation continues on a slow road and sometimes full of potholes,” Powell said Wednesday. “We do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy position.”
Bankrate’s financial analyst Greg McBride put the situation without surroundings: “Progress towards inflation of 2% has stagnated and the Fed knows it,” he said in a statement on Wednesday. “They did not give any indication in their statement after the meeting that the resumption of rates cuts is likely at the next meeting in March. A series of good inflation data will be needed to take us there, provided that is. “
Economists say that the delicate dance of maintaining the costs of loans high enough to fight the growth of prices without pushing the economy to a recession has become more complicated. That is largely due to Trump’s economic agenda, particularly tariffs, with his first political movement on that expected front on Saturday.
When asked about the potential economic impact of tariffs, Powell said that “the rank of possibilities is very broad.”
“We don’t know for how long or how much, what countries. We do not know about reprisals. We do not know how consumers will be transmitted through the economy, ”he said.
Whatever the final result, “it is clear that the decisions of the Central Bank of this year will be formed by the Trump administration policies on trade and immigration,” wrote Joe Brusuelas, chief economist of the financial firm RSM, in a note Tuesday for the interest rate. advertisement. “These policies could lead to greater inflation or, just as important, raise inflation expectations, which would put the inflation target of 2% of the Fed at risk.”
