Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is sticking to his position that the central bank will keep its key rate on hold while it waits to see how President Donald Trump’s tariffs effect the economy, defying the steady stream of criticism from the White House,

The central bank chief said he believes the Fed board would have decided to lower rates further until Trump launched his mercurial on-again, off-again tariffs policy, which could wind up raising

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told a financial conference in Portugal on Tuesday that he would have lowered interest rates if not for President Trump's tariffs. The White House all-but directly asked the Fed to lower rates yesterday,