WASHINGTON: Faced with a growing economic shutdown amid the global new coronavirus pandemic, the Federal Reserve on Sunday announced drastic emergency measures to shore up confidence and keep the financial sector running, including slashing the key interest rate to virtually zero.
"What's happened with the Fed is phenomenal news," Trump said at a regular briefing of his coronavirus task force. The Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, following its emergency meeting, said that"the coronavirus outbreak has harmed communities and disrupted economic activity in many countries, including the United States."
The Fed decision on Sunday unleashed those reserves so bank can help support families and businesses, with more than US$4 trillion at their disposal. In addition it will resume the"quantitative easing" policy used during the last crisis that involves buying debt to keep money flowing through the economy. The Fed will in coming months buy US$500 billion in US Treasury debt and US$200 billion in mortgage-backed securities."We have been urging this action for some time and we're very happy that the Fed did not wait until Wednesday's meeting," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
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