Trump urges Fed to cut rates for ‘rocket-like’ economy

Washington, May 1 (IANS) US President Donald Trump called on the US Federal Reserve to lower interest rates and adopt quantitative easing, citing an economy he said is "doing well."

"Our Federal Reserve has incessantly lifted interest rates, even though inflation is very low, and instituted a very big dose of quantitative tightening," Xinhua quoted Trump as saying on Twitter on Tuesday.

The US economy, Trump said, "has the potential to go up like a rocket if we did some lowering of rates, like one point, and some quantitative easing," noting that the economy is "doing well" in light of a 3.2 per cent first-quarter GDP growth.

The US President said that "with our wonderfully low inflation, we could be setting major records" and "make our National Debt start to look small!"

Data released Monday by the US Department of Commerce showed that excluding the volatile energy and food prices, the core personal consumption expenditures price index, a preferred inflation gauge by the Fed, was up 1.6 per cent year-over-year in March, below the Fed's target inflation rate of 2 per cent.

The US central bank, which hiked interest rates for four consecutive times last year, has opted for a more patient policy stance by maintaining the target range for the federal funds rate at 2.25 per cent to 2.5 per cent during the first two policy meetings this year.

The Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's monetary policymaking body, will conclude another two-day policy meeting Wednesday. While it is widely believed that a rate hike is unlikely, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's remarks at the press conference on Wednesday will be closely watched.