Trump summons Powell, tells him he’s making a mistake on rates

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump called Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to the White House on Thursday for their first face-to-face meeting since he took office in January and told the central bank chief he was making a “mistake” by not lowering interest rates.

Both the White House and Fed confirmed the two met at the president’s invitation, renewing a fractious relationship in which Trump has repeatedly berated Powell for not cutting rates as the president desires. “Chair Powell did not discuss his expectations for monetary policy,” the Fed said in a statement after the meeting, “except to stress that the path of policy will depend entirely on incoming economic information and what that means for the outlook.”

He told Trump that he and his colleagues at the Fed “will set monetary policy, as required by law, to support maximum employment and stable prices and will make those decisions based solely on careful, objective, and non-political analysis,” the statement said. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said she and the president had seen the Fed’s statement and that it was correct.

However, she added, “the President did say that he believes the Fed chair is making a mistake by not lowering interest rates, which is putting us at an economic disadvantage to China and other countries.”