U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he had removed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent from consideration for an open seat on the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors, but said he would "very shortly" announce his choice. In an interview with CNBC, Trump said Fed Governor Adriana Kugler's decision to vacate her seat early was a "pleasant surprise." The departure of Kugler, whose term would have ended on January 31, appears to have accelerated Trump's planning for the U.S. central bank, giving him an immediate opening to fill with a person who could also be promoted to the top...
Markets expect the Fed to keep rates on hold today. Recent data has surprised in a dovish direction, but projections and the dot plot will shift more hawkish. The ‘hard' data from the projections likely gives a better signal of the Fed's rate trajectory than the ‘soft' data from Powell's press conference, ABN AMRO's economist Rogier Quaedvlieg reports. Fed to hold rates, but dot plot set for hawkish shift "Tonight the Fed will keep rates on hold. In the press conference, Powell will likely repeat the messaging of last time: they will consider the totality of the Trump administration's...
Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda reaffirmed the central bank's commitment to raising interest rates if underlying inflation nears its 2% target. While core consumer inflation has stayed above 2% for three years, demand-driven pressures remain subdued. Ueda told parliament the BoJ is keeping real interest rates negative to support stable, sustained inflation. "Once we have more conviction that underlying inflation will approach or hover around 2%, we will continue to raise rates," he said. The BoJ ended its decade-long stimulus last year, lifting short-term rates to 0.5% in January as...
The minutes of the Federal Reserve's (Fed) discount rate meetings from April 7, 28, and May 8 revealed that policymakers are increasingly uneasy about the coming economic impacts, mostly from U.S. trade policy. While overall economic conditions are stable, tariff uncertainty continues to weigh on business operators, who are preparing contingency plans and slowing their investment and spending rates. Key highlights Overall, central bank directors noted considerable uncertainty about the outlook. While most directors described current economic conditions as generally stable, they also...
Austan Goolsbee, President of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, expressed his belief on Monday that the U.S. central bank will be able to reduce short-term borrowing costs once the uncertainty caused by tariff policies is resolved. During a webcast interview with the Quad Cities Regional Business Journal in Davenport, Iowa, Goolsbee stated that if the economy can navigate through this challenging period, the dual mandate looks promising. The dual mandate of the Fed is a reference to its two primary objectives: full employment and price stability. Goolsbee further stated his ongoing belief...
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary C. Daly was on the news Thursday night, noting that the White House's unbalanced trade policies are keeping the Fed in a wait-and-see mode as policymakers prepare to see what kind of impact on the U.S. economy high import tariffs will have on the broader economy. Key highlights The labor market is in solid shape. Workers are worried about inflation. We're not going to get to 2% inflation this year. We're actually making progress on inflation. I see the balance in the labor market that we need for 2% inflation. Bond yields show the...
According to a statement by the Federal Reserve (Fed), Fed Chair Jerome Powell met with United States (US) President Donald Trump on Thursday, where the head of the Fed reiterated that the Fed's...
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) maintained its cash rate at 4.1% during its April meeting, holding borrowing costs unchanged after slashing 25 bps in the February meeting, aligning with market...