We’re not even thinking about thinking about raising rates, US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, says. Confronted with an economy gripped by recession and high unemployment, the Federal Reserve signaled Wednesday that it expects to keep its key short-term interest rate near zero through 2022. At the same time, the Fed said it will keep buying about US $120 billion in Treasury and mortgage bonds each month to maintain low longer-term borrowing rates in an effort to spur spending and growth. Powell noted that the job market “may have hit bottom” last month, when employers added a surprise 2.5 million jobs, according to a government report last Friday. “We’re not thinking about raising rates.

Source: The Standard June 11, 2020 01:41 UTC