Fed Maintains Rates on Strong Jobs, Saying “Too Early” to Weigh Effects from Coronavirus

The Federal Reserve (Fed) had a resolution on Wednesday to hold interest rate steady in a range of between 1.50% and 1.75% in the first meeting of 2020, citing a strong job market and no sign of any imminent changes in borrowing costs.

 

“We believe the current stance of monetary policy is appropriate to support sustained economic growth, a strong labor market and inflation returning to our symmetric 2% objective,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at a news conference.

In the news conference, he stated that global economic growth was stabilizing and easing uncertainties around trade policy, which were the key factor leading to three rate cuts last year.

“Uncertainties about the outlook remain, including those posed by the new coronavirus,” spoke Powell of the virus that killed 170 Chinese people in a month as cases rose beyond 7,700. “We are very carefully monitoring the situation,” added Powell while stating that currently the situation is too early to determine its global effect or impact on the U.S. economic outlook.