{"id":309276,"date":"2026-01-29T05:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T05:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/309276\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T05:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T05:49:09","slug":"us-fed-holds-interest-rates-steady-despite-continuing-pressure-from-donald-trump-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/309276\/","title":{"rendered":"US Fed holds interest rates steady despite continuing pressure from Donald Trump \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US Federal Reserve<\/a> has kept interest rates<\/a> on hold, as US rate-setters signalled they are in no rush to cut despite Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s relentless campaign to drastically lower borrowing costs.<\/p>\n

The rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee said on Wednesday that economic activity was \u201cexpanding at a solid pace\u201d and unemployment was showing \u201csome signs of stabilisation\u201d \u2014 hints that officials believe rates are now at an acceptable level for the world\u2019s largest economy.<\/p>\n

The move to keep the benchmark federal funds rate within a 3.5 to 3.75 per cent range follows three quarter-point cuts in a row as the labour market showed signs of weakening.<\/p>\n

Fed governor Christopher Waller \u2014 one of four candidates left in the race to replace Jerome Powell<\/a> as chairman later this year \u2014 dissented, joining fellow governor and Trump ally, Stephen Miran, in backing a quarter-point cut.<\/p>\n

Mr Powell said on Wednesday that \u201cif you look at the incoming data since the last meeting, [there is a] clear improvement in the outlook for growth\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009everything comes in suggesting that this year starts off on a solid footing for rates.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that inflation had performed \u201cabout as expected\u201d and there was labour market data suggested \u201cevidence of stabilisation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump has said he wants rates as low as 1 per cent \u2014 a level the president claims would lower the US government\u2019s financing costs by hundreds of billions of dollars.<\/p>\n

The Fed has faced a delicate balancing act in setting rates at a level that not only guards against a sharp rise in unemployment, but also keeps price pressures in check.<\/p>\n

The US economy added just 50,000 jobs in December, according to bureau of labor statistics figures that offer the latest sign \u2014 after years of stellar performance \u2014 that hiring in the world\u2019s largest economy is beginning to slow. Unemployment fell slightly to 4.4 per cent last month, down from a revised 4.5 per cent rate in November.<\/p>\n

However, the Fed\u2019s preferred measure of inflation climbed to 2.8 per cent in November from 2.7 per cent in October, according to the most recent figures. It has been above the central bank\u2019s 2 per cent goal since early 2021. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US Federal Reserve has kept interest rates on hold, as US rate-setters signalled they are in no…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,356,179,18,182,19,5389,17,5129],"class_list":{"0":"post-309276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-federal-reserve","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-interest-rates","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-jerome-powell"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115976822009132109","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}