In its first emergency rate cut since the 2008 financial crisis, the move aims to prevent the US economy from slowing down due to the uncertainty of the novel coronavirus outbreak. It comes in spite of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s previous direction of keeping rates for the year unchanged.
SINGAPORE (Mar 4): The US Federal Reserve has slashed rates by half a percentage point on Tuesday.
In a unanimous vote by the 17-member committee, the benchmark lending rate was dropped to a target range between 1 to 1.25%.
