The chairman of the Federal Reserve President Jerome Powell “emphasized” that the central bank has not made a decision on the rate of increase of the rate when the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meets later in March. Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee for the semiannual fiscal policy report on Wednesday, Powell made a significant change (from Tuesday’s Senate testimony) to his preparedness statement. “I stress that no decision has been made on this,” Powell added on Wednesday of the pace of rate increases. On Tuesday, the market took Powell’s words of caution as he suggested that the Fed could raise rates by 50 basis points at the March FOMC meeting instead of the 25 previously expected. Both bitcoin and stocks saw significant declines and the dollar was a strong session. when witness. The inclusion of the word “no decision” on Wednesday may be an attempt to allay those fears.

Bitcoin (BTC) regained more than $200 on the news, now back above $22,000 to $22,200, and the S&P 500 turned from a small loss to a small gain. The dollar is giving back some big gains Tuesday.

Powell said there is a lot of important economic news to come out between now and the March 21-22 FOMC meeting – this Friday’s February wages report and inflation figures from next week ‘between them – and other data will play an important role. guides tariff decisions. Although crypto appeared during Wednesday’s hearing, it is not a big issue, even among parliamentarians who usually talk about the sector.

Powell said the Fed has not made a decision on whether to issue a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in response to a question from a lawmaker. “We’re not making real decisions, we’re doing some sort of initial testing – how is that going to work? Does it work? What is the best technology, which is effective – in the early stages, but we are making progress in terms of technology,” he said.
Nikhilesh De contributed to the complaint.