Fed Has No Plan to Cut Interest Rates Into Negative: Fischer

[thenews]

The central bank will remain in wait-and-see mode in the near term due to Brexit, which is "a huge event for the UK and Europe", and will not adopt negative rates, Federal Reserve (Fed) Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said on Friday.

"Our direct trade with Britain is not going to make a huge difference to us, but . . . there are a lot of things that will follow from Brexit for Europe, for the United Kingdom, and those are the things we'll have to be thinking about," he explained.

Fischer repeated that the Fed has not been planning to cut interest rates into negative the way central banks in Japan, Switzerland and Sweden have.

"One of the things you learn if you're a central banker is never say never, but if there's one thing we don't want to do, we have no plans to move into negative territory and we will try to avoid ever getting to that position."

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