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Trump slams Federal Reserve again over rising US interest rates

File photo of the US Federal Reserve

US President Donald Trump has again attacked the Federal Reserve for considering raising interest rates, as the country’s central bank plans to raise borrowing costs for a fourth time this year.

“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 tweeted on Monday.

A few hours later, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro echoed Trump’s criticism, calling the Fed “crazy” for having signaled, as it did in September, that it would continue to raise rates next year.

As the US economy has recovered, the Fed has been raising the benchmark lending rate gradually since December 2015.

Many economists also see the Fed increasing rates next year as well, although at a slower pace in the face of a possible economic recession.

Trump has frequently blasted the central bank and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for raising borrowing costs this year.

Trump has called the central bank "crazy", "out of control" and a greater economic threat than China, which the president blames for hollowing out US manufacturing through unfair trade practices.

In an interview with Reuters last week, Trump said he needed the flexibility of lower interest rates to support the broader US economy as he fights a growing trade battle against China, and potentially other countries.

The Fed on Tuesday opens its two-day policy meeting, and is widely expected to raise the key rate for the fourth time this year, working to get ahead of expected gains in inflation.

In September, the Fed raised interest rates by 25 basis points for the third time in 2018, raising the target range for its benchmark rate to 2 - 2.25 percent.

The Federal Reserve is considered independent because its monetary policy decisions do not have to be approved by the president or anyone else in the executive or legislative branches of government and it does not receive funding appropriated by Congress.

The central bank is mandated by Congress to aim for low inflation and low unemployment. Currently American consumer price inflation is above 2 percent annually and the unemployment rate is the lowest in about 50 years.


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