US INTEREST rates are in a good place for the Federal Reserve’s inflation fight, a senior central bank official said on Monday, pushing back against President Donald Trump’s calls for cuts.
“Overall, given the state of the economy and financial markets, I view the current stance of policy as only slightly restrictive, which I think is the right place to be,” Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schmid told a conference in the city, according to prepared remarks.
Schmid, who is a voting member of the Fed’s powerful rate-setting committee this year, said he had voted for a rate cut last month as an “appropriate risk-management strategy,” given the ongoing signs of a cooling labour market.
The Fed has a dual mandate from Congress to act independently to tackle both inflation and unemployment, mainly by hiking, cutting or holding its benchmark lending rate.
Schmid’s remarks stand in stark contrast to those of Trump, who has regularly lambasted Fed Chair Jerome Powell – and the rate committee on which Schmid sits – for not cutting rates quickly enough.
In recent months, Fed officials have noted that while inflation remains stuck stubbornly above the bank’s long-term two per cent target, the cooling labour market has required them to refocus their attention, and contemplate additional rate cuts.
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But speaking on Monday, Schmid said that while the Fed must navigate the trade-off between inflation and unemployment, targeting inflation should come first.
“My view is that the Fed must maintain its credibility on inflation,” he said.
Futures traders currently see a roughly 95 per cent chance that the Fed will cut interest rates by a quarter percentage-point at its next rate decision later this month, according to data from CME Group.
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That would lower the bank’s key lending rate to between 3.75 and 4.00 per cent. AFP
