FED Chairman Jerome Powell made new statements about interest rates and tariffs.
Speaking at the ECB Central Banking Forum, organized annually by the European Central Bank (ECB) and held in Sintra, Portugal, the Fed President said that the US economy is in good shape and inflation is moving towards the 2 percent target.
Jerome Powell said the U.S. economy is in solid shape and inflation is moving as expected when excluding the effects of tariffs.
He stated that the FED paused interest rate cuts to see the impact of the tariffs and that waiting was the right approach as long as the economy remained strong.
Powell added that if it weren’t for Donald Trump’s tariffs, they would have cut rates by now.
“The U.S. economy is in good shape and inflation continues to decline toward the 2 percent target.
If we leave the tariffs aside, we can say that inflation is moving in the direction we want.
When we saw the size of customs duties, we started to wait for interest rate cuts.
In the current situation, we think the best thing to do before starting to cut interest rates is to wait and get more information.
“We are seeing a gradual cooling in the labor market. But it has not reached the level we wanted.”
July Signal for Interest Rate Cuts!
Powell said the vast majority at the Fed expect a rate cut later this year, but he noted it was not yet clear whether July was too early to cut rates.
“I can’t say whether July is too early to cut interest rates. I wouldn’t take the possibility of a rate cut off the table at any meeting, it just depends on the data,” Powell said.
We Would Have Lowered Interest Rates Long Ago!
Powell finally answered the question: “Would you lower interest rates if there were no tariffs?”
Powell responded to this question in a way that would anger Trump, saying, “If it weren’t for Trump’s tariffs, we would have lowered interest rates by now.”
Although Powell did not give a clear date for interest rate cuts, Bitcoin rose from $106,400 to over $107,000 in the last minutes after he signaled softening.
Trump and Powell Fight!
Donald Trump harshly criticizes Powell’s interest rate policies, while arguing that the economy is in good shape and emphasizing that interest rate cuts are necessary.
At this point, Trump emphasizes that there should be aggressive interest rate cuts to stimulate the economy, while Powell continues to insist that interest rates should not be changed and should proceed depending on the data due to concerns about inflation and instability caused by tariffs.
*This is not investment advice.
