Closing post
Time to wrap up….
The chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, has blamed Donald Trump’s tariffs for preventing the immediate interest rate cuts the president has demanded.
Trump has repeatedly urged Powell to reduce borrowing costs in the US economy, and on Monday posted a hand-scrawled note on his Truth Social platform saying: “You have cost the USA a fortune – and continue to do so – you should lower the rate by a lot!”
But Powell told an event hosted by the European Central Bank (ECB) in Portugal on Tuesday that the Fed was waiting to assess the inflationary impact of the president’s trade policies.
Speaking on a panel of central bankers in Sintra, he said:
“In effect we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs.
“Essentially all inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs. We didn’t overreact, in fact we didn’t react at all. We’re simply taking some time.”
Shortly after Powell’s comments in Sintra, Trump claimed that “anyone” could do a better job as Fed chair.
In other news…
UK house prices fell in June, as the rise in stamp duty tax deterred buyers
The governor of the Bank of England has warned that the UK economy, and the jobs market, are softening – which may clear the way for further cuts to UK interest rates
The downturn in UK manufacturing eased last month, but the sector is still shrinking
Marks & Spencer’s online business should be running “fully” within the next four weeks, its boss has said, as the retailer recovers from a damaging cyber-attack.
Trump: Anyone would be better than J Powell
Over at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’, a detention facility in Florida, Donald Trump has taken another bite at Jerome Powell.
Our US Politics Live blog reports that Trump was asked if he intends to announce his pick for the next Fed chair’.
In response, the US president gestured to Florida governor Ron DeSantis and US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to imply they would both be good candidates, before adding:
Anybody would be better than J Powell.
He’s costing us a fortune because he keeps the rate way up.
