US Treasury secretary calls for Fed rates cut by 50 bps in Sept

NEW YORK - US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that the Federal Reserve should cut interest rates by 50 basis points (bps) at its next meeting in September, adding the Fed should have reduced the rates in June.

Bessent also expressed the hope that White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) Chair Stephen Miran will be confirmed by the Senate to join the central bank's board of governors before the Fed meeting next month, multiple US media outlets reported, citing Bessent's interview with Fox Business.

According to the CME FedWatch Tool, the odds of a rate cut of 25 bps by the Fed in September rose to 93.4 percent on Tuesday, up from 85.9 percent a day earlier.

Commenting on the race for the next Fed chair, Bessent said that US President Donald Trump has an "open mind" about candidates, adding that the agency's next leader should be someone "who can revamp the institution."

In the past months, Trump has bashed Fed Chair Jerome Powell over the Fed's monetary policy decisions and pressured the central bank to cut interest rates, though experts largely viewed it as unlikely that Powell would cave.

Powell's term as Fed chair is set to end in May 2026, and he repeatedly said he will not leave the post early.

The resignation of former Fed Governor Adriana Kugler in early August offered a vacancy for Trump to fill on the Fed's board.

The Fed has seven board members, and no other Fed board members are scheduled to leave before Powell's term ends.

According to the Fed's website, board members are nominated by the US president and confirmed by the Senate, while the chair and vice chairs of the board are nominated by the president from among the members and also require Senate confirmation.

Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua: "Powell is not going to cut rates until the data on economic growth and jobs indicate that it is necessary ... Trump doesn't have much leverage other than announcing Powell's successor well in advance of the end of his term to encourage Fed officials to follow that person's lead."