Trump attacks euro and repeats criticism of Fed
US President Donald Trump has accused the Eurozone economies of devaluing the single currency to put the US at a disadvantage, and renewed his attack on his country’s central bank.
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Trump said on Twitter: “The Euro and other currencies are devalued against the dollar, putting the U.S. at a big disadvantage. The Fed Interest rate way too high, added to ridiculous quantitative tightening! They don’t have a clue!”
Trump has repeatedly called on the Fed to cut interest rates, which he has said would make the economy “rocket”. Yesterday he claimed the central bank’s rates policy was “very, very destructive”.
The President told CNBC news channel that China was coping with his tariff onslaught by devaluing its currency to make its goods more attractive. He said: “We don’t have that advantage because we have a Fed that doesn’t lower interest rates.”
Last week official data signalled that the US jobs boom was slowing, which could encourage the Fed board to consider an interest rate cut when it meets next week.
Trump also tweeted today: “The United States has VERY LOW INFLATION, a beautiful thing!”
The tweet comes ahead of the release of inflation data tomorrow, which is expected to show a 1.9 per cent annualised headline inflation rate in May, compared to two per cent in April.
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Producer price index figures released today showed a 1.8 per cent rate in May, compared to 2.2 per cent in April. This was largely due to falling energy prices.