March 19, 2025
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1:54Now PlayingFed Chair Jerome Powell spoke to reporters about the latest economic data and the state of inflation after Fed officials decided to keep rates unchanged.
Federal Reserve officials held their benchmark interest rate steady for a second straight meeting, caught between mounting concerns that the economy is slowing and inflation could remain stubbornly high.
Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged the high degree of uncertainty from President Donald Trump’s significant policy changes, but repeated the central bank is not in a hurry to adjust borrowing costs. He said officials can wait for greater clarity on the impact of those policies on the economy before acting.
The Federal Open Market Committee voted on Wednesday to keep the benchmark federal funds rate in a range of 4.25%-4.5%, and said it would further slow the pace at which it is reducing its balance sheet. Governor Christopher Waller, who supported holding rates steady, dissented from the decision over the balance sheet move.
The decision to hold rates steady comes as Trump’s ambitious and frequently erratic policy agenda has placed the economy, and the Fed’s ability to keep it on track, under increasing pressure. Trump’s ever-changing plans to levy tariffs on US trading partners have stoked fears of an economic slowdown and raised fresh worries over inflation — a combination that could pull policymakers in opposite directions.
“Inflation has started to move up,” Powell said, “we think partly in response to tariffs. And there may be a delay in further progress over the course of this year.”
Powell said his base case is that any tariff-driven bump in inflation will be “transitory,” but later added it will be very challenging to say with confidence how much inflation stems from tariffs versus other factors.
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