Central bank emphasizes nonpartisan role in brief memo after chair Jerome Powell meets with US president

The Federal Reserve issued a rare, strongly worded statement on Thursday after chair Jerome Powell spoke with Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday morning, holding firm on the central bank’s independence amid pressure from Trump to lower interest rates.

The three-paragraph statement emphasized the Fed’s independent, non-partisan role in setting monetary policy based on economic data.

Powell told Trump that he and other Fed officials “will set monetary policy, as required by law, to support maximum employment and stable prices and will make those decisions based solely on careful, objective, and non-political analysis”, according to the statement.