Washington (AFP)

After ten years of uninterrupted growth, the US central bank on Wednesday lowered its main interest rate for the first time since 2008, amid repeated accusations by Donald Trump not enough to stimulate the world's largest economy.

Citing "uncertainties" about the global economy and "persistent inflation" weakness, the Fed cut key rates by a quarter of a percentage point to set them in the range of 2% to 2.25% .

Tuesday again, Donald Trump had called for a drop in rates "strong".

The Monetary Committee left the door open for a new gesture saying it would act "appropriately to support growth".

The Fed had tightened the rent of silver four times by a quarter of a percentage point last year, but now considers that weak global growth and persistently low inflation require a more accommodating monetary policy.

Despite this change in monetary direction, the Committee's description of economic activity in its press release has changed little from the last meeting six weeks ago.

Job gains remain "solid", business investment growth is "soft" and inflation "remains below the 2% target".

The Federal Reserve has also decided to halt, two months earlier than planned, the reduction of its balance sheet and the shedding of treasury bills it holds.

The decline in government bonds had the implicit effect of a slight rise in interest rates, which in particular irritated President Donald Trump, who was quick to complain about the rising cost of credit.

The Fed's balance sheet should thus be around 3,800 billion dollars instead of 4,500 billion at the end of 2017 when it was at its peak when the central bank had massively acquired financial assets to boost the recovery.

- Pressures -

While defending its independence, the Fed is finally acting in line with what President Trump has been calling for.

The White House host, seeking a second term, wants low rates that favor the consumer, lower the cost of debt and boost the Dow Jones on Wall Street.

Still Monday Donald Trump complained in a tweet that "the EU and China will again lower interest rates and inject money into their systems, which will facilitate the sale of their products. and with very low inflation, our Fed is doing nothing - and will probably do very little in comparison - a pity! "

The Fed's decision was not unanimous in the Monetary Committee. Two members of the Fed voted against the decision, Esther George from the Kansas City Fed and Eric Rosengren from Boston. They would have preferred to keep the rates as they are.

Many economists fear that a rate cut will unduly stimulate the economy, by increasing the risk of a financial bubble, especially on the corporate borrowing side, or by resurging inflation.

This is the first time since Jerome Powell has been the head of the institution since early 2018, that the Monetary Committee is so divided.

If inflation is stagnant at 1.4%, US economic growth is still solid at 2.1% in the second quarter and the unemployment rate is close to its lowest level in fifty years (3.7%).

Eleven years after the financial crisis, the US Central Bank joins the other major central banks in the world in their accommodative policies.

The European Central Bank, which has kept rates at zero, opened the way last week to a series of anti-crisis remedies, ranging from one or more rate cuts to a possible resumption of its debt buybacks. painting a gloomy picture of the economic outlook in the eurozone.

As for the Bank of Japan, it continues to renew its ultra-accommodative monetary policy.

The main Wall Street indexes stabilized after falling slightly in the silage of the spread of the release of the US Central Bank announcing a drop in key rates: the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined at 18:25 GMT of 0.17% while the Nasdaq was stable.

The dollar took 0.45% against the European currency, at 1.106 dollars for one euro, against 0.2% just before the release.

© 2019 AFP