Donald Trump attacked Jerome Powell’s President of the American Central Bank (Fed), who refuses to lower the institution’s interest rates, saying: “He will leave if I ask him. »»
“I’m not happy with him. I let him know, and if I want him to leave, he will go quickly, believe me, “assured the American president in the oval office, alongside the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“It is more than time that Powell’s mandate ends,” wrote Donald Trump on his social social platform earlier during the day, while the second mandate of the president of the Fed must end in May 2026.
The latter should “have had to lower interest rates for a long time already, like the ECB”, the European Central Bank, added the American president, by encouraging Mr. Powell to “do it now”.
ECB officials, who meet every six weeks, have just agreed on a drop of 0.25 points from the key rates to strengthen the economy of the euro zone.
Its president Christine Lagarde said Thursday that the ECB was to “face the unpredictable” and be “agile”, deeming impossible to engage in advance on a rate trajectory in the uncertain context of trade war carried out by the United States.
She also posted her solidarity with her counterpart from the American central bank, for whom she said she had “a lot of respect”.
Inflation
The customs duties wanted by Mr. Trump place the federal reserve in the face of a “complicated” situation, said on Wednesday Mr. Powell, believing that these surcharges were “most certainly leading to at least a temporary increase in inflation”.
“Oil prices are declining, the amount of races (even eggs!) Also, and the United States is enriched thanks to customs duties,” Trump said early Thursday, for whom the boss of the Fed “is always too slow and is still wrong.”
The Republican leader had already urged Mr. Powell on April 4 to lower interest rates, when it would be “the perfect time”.
The Fed has maintained its main stable rates, between 4.25% and 4.50%, since the start of the year.
-The drop in oil slowed down inflation in March, with the consumer price index which fell 0.1 %, after an increase of 0.2 % in February.
The index was pulled down by lower prices at the pump: –6.3% over a month and –9.8% over a year.
This has confirmed the White House in its customs policy, while economists plan a revival of inflation due to the new customs duties set up by Donald Trump.
However, in March, the surcharge on products imported into the United States had not all entered into force. Since then, and despite spectacular reversals, the United States has been hitting foreign products of 10% additional customs duties, and those from China with a 145% punitive surcharge.
Independent agency
Donald Trump appointed Jerome Powell as head of the Fed during his first mandate in 2018, but today accuses him of politicizing the American Central Bank.
He was renewed at the head of the Fed in 2021 by Joe Biden for a second term.
Last August, in the middle of the electoral campaign, Donald Trump threatened the agency’s independence, suggesting that the White House could have his say regarding monetary policy.
The American president does not have the power to read the Fed patterns directly. To try to remove Jerome Powell, Donald Trump should start a long procedure and prove that the latter has committed a serious fault.
If it is not uncommon for the American presidents and the Fed patterns to oppose the monetary policy to follow, any attempt to dismiss Jerome Powell of his functions would be unheard of in contemporary American history.
The interested party declared in early April that he intended to “remain in office until the end of (his) mandate” in 2026.
With AFP
