Bank of America: US consumers will be disappointed if interest rates are not cut

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said on Sunday that American consumers may be disappointed if the US Federal Reserve does not start cutting interest rates relatively soon.

At the end of July, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates in the same range of 5.25% to 5.50% that it has been in for more than a year, but indicated that a rate cut could come in September if inflation continues to slow.

According to CNN, Moynihan said in an interview with CBS, “They’ve told people that interest rates probably won’t go up, but if they don’t start cutting them relatively soon, it could dampen American consumer sentiment.” He added, “Once the American consumer starts feeling negative, it’s hard to get them back to where they were before.” Asked about Republican nominee Donald Trump’s statement that presidents should have a say in Fed decisions, Moynihan said people were free to advise Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, and it was his job to decide what to do. “If you look around the world’s economies and you see that central banks are independent and operate freely, they tend to do better than those that don’t,” he said.