WASHINGTON - A flurry of interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve and a host of other central banks marks the broadest shift in global monetary policy since the depths of the financial crisis in 2009, analysts at Fitch Ratings said in a report on Friday.
It’s the type of coordinated change that characterized how central banks responded to the financial crisis with across-the-board rate cuts, dollar swap lines extended by the U.S. central bank to other countries, and a series of other exceptional steps to keep the world economy afloat. “In terms of how swift the change has been, it is quite striking,” said Brian Coulton, chief economist for Fitch Ratings.Coulton said they were responding both to the Fed’s policy change - evidence that the broad use of the dollar in world trade and corporate finance had linked the world economy ever closer to what happens in Washington - and the sense of growing risk from the U.S.-China trade war.