Fed not in ‘any hurry’ to change rates

washington — Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said the US central bank does “not feel any hurry” to change the level of interest rates again as it watches how a slowing global economy affects local conditions in the United States.

Rates are currently “appropriate”, Powell said in a wide-ranging interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes news show, in which he called the current rate level “appropriate” and “roughly neutral”, meaning it is neither stimulating or curbing the economy.

An economic slowdown in China and Europe and other global issues currently pose the largest risks to an otherwise healthy US outlook, he said, though even in those place he felt “very negative outcomes” were not likely.

The interview — roughly eight years after former Chair Ben Bernanke appeared on the same show to discuss the Fed’s aggressive actions during the deep 2007-09 recession — crossed a range of issues, including the health of the financial system, the impact of the opioid crisis on the work force, and President Donald Trump’s aggressive criticism of central bank rate hikes.

Now in year 10 of an expansion only just beginning when Bernanke appeared on the show, Powell vouched for the health and safety of an economy and banking system that has rebounded in many ways, with unemployment at record lows and banks better capitalised. —