President Trump on Monday urged the Federal Reserve not to raise interest rates. But Fed officials are widely expected to do so this week despite the president’s public effort to dissuade the U.S. central bank from putting any brakes on the economy.
“It is incredible that with a very strong dollar and virtually no inflation, the outside world blowing up around us, Paris is burning and China way down, the Fed is even considering yet another interest rate hike. Take the Victory!” Trump wrote Monday in a Twitter post.
Fed officials will conclude a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, and Wall Street traders predict nearly an 80 percent chance that the Fed will raise rates a quarter point this week, setting them at a range of 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent. That hike would keep rates low by historical standards but put them at the highest level in a decade.
