U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the Fed's rate increases and urged the central bank to lower interest rates to boost the economy.

"Our Federal Reserve has incessantly lifted interest rates, even though inflation is very low, and instituted a very big dose of quantitative tightening," Trump tweeted on Tuesday.

"We have the potential to go up like a rocket if we did some lowering of rates, like one point, and some quantitative easing," the president added.

In response to a question about outside political pressure, Powell on Wednesday pledged to defend the central bank's independence.

"We are a nonpolitical institution and that means we don't think about short term political considerations," Powell told reporters.

"We don't discuss them and we don't consider them in making our decisions one way or the other," he said.

"That is critical for the Fed to maintain independence from the political pressures that are always present in Washington," Swonk noted.

【国际英语资讯:Spotlight: U.S. Fed leaves rates unchanged, downplays inflation concerns】相关文章：

★ 阿拉伯国家提议加强互联网监管

★ 白宫称奥巴马拟推进更严格的控枪措施

★ 韩国男性变脂粉男 去年护肤花5亿美元

★ 美国不会跌落财政悬崖

★ 浅薄的Facebook人气比赛

★ 中美关系将面临调整

★ 英法就伦敦金融中心地位打口水战

★ 以色列开枪一名巴勒斯坦人被打死

★ 瑞银寻求就Libor操纵指控达成全球和解

★ 美国法律关税追溯规定加剧中美轮胎争端