Federal Reserve keeps interest rates flat, points to low inflation
By Irina Ivanova
/ MoneyWatch
The U.S. central bank is keeping a key interest rate steady, despite urges from President Donald Trump to lower it in order to boost the economy.
Even though growth in household spending and business investment has slowed, "job gains have been solid, on average, in recent months, and the unemployment rate has remained low," the Federal Reserve's rate-setting body said in a statement Wednesday. The target interest rate remains between 2.25 and 2.5 percent.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump tweeted that the U.S. economy has "the potential to go up like a rocket" if the Fed would only slash rates and resume what's called quantitative easing—the emergency bond-buying programs the central bank launched after the Great Recession to stimulate spending and growth.
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First published on May 1, 2019 / 2:10 PM
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