Federal Reserve holds rates steady as inflation 'remains a primary risk'

Trump volatility causing future uncertainty

The Federal Reserve has voted to keep US interest rates on hold at 4.25%-4.5% amid swirling geopolitical uncertainty and a still somewhat hot inflationary picture.

Following a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on Wednesday (19 March), rate setters repeated their January decision and kept rates unchanged, following calls in recent months from the central bank's chair Jerome Powell for a "gradual" approach to cuts. Trump lambasts the Fed as it leaves interest rates unchanged According to Lindsay James, investment strategist at Quilter, "Powell is flying somewhat blind given not only the extremity of the tariffs being announced by Donald Trump, but his willingness to U-turn at the last moment, making any attempt by businesses and ...