Central bankers around the world defended the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome H. Powell, on Tuesday from attacks by the Trump administration that have been widely seen as trying to erode the U.S. central bank’s independence.
Eleven central bankers expressed their support for Mr. Powell in a statement, including Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank, which sets rates for the 21 eurozone countries; Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England; Tiff Macklem, the governor of the Bank of Canada; and Chang Yong Rhee, the governor of the Bank of Korea.
U.S. federal prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into the Fed chair over the central bank’s renovation of its Washington headquarters and whether Mr. Powell lied to Congress about the scope of the project. It followed months of relentless pressure from President Trump and other officials for the central bank to aggressively cut interest rates. The Trump administration has said it is concerned about affordability, including mortgages.
“We stand in full solidarity with the Federal Reserve System and its Chair Jerome H. Powell,” the statement published on Tuesday said. “The independence of central banks is a cornerstone of price, financial and economic stability in the interest of the citizens that we serve.”
The central bankers said it was critical to preserve that independence, and they praised Mr. Powell’s service and commitment to the public interest. “To us, he is a respected colleague who is held in the highest regard by all who have worked with him,” they wrote.
It was a relatively rare group statement of solidarity from the policymakers. In general, central bankers steer clear of anything deemed political, in part to bolster their own independence, and they rarely comment on political matters in another country. But the ability of the Fed to set interest rates freely has implications for other central banks because of the global role of the U.S. dollar.
“It is in nobody’s interests for there to be worries and instability in the U.S.,” said Jonathan Haskel, an economics professor at Imperial College Business School and former member of the rate-setting committee at the Bank of England. “Other countries hold lots of American assets. Savers in Europe will implicitly be invested in the American stock market. America is in many ways a flagship engine, with the A.I. revolution going on. Nobody in the world wants to see that at risk.”
The statement from the central bankers follows the precedent set by Mr. Powell on Sunday, when he condemned the criminal investigation into his testimony and asserted that it was an effort to undermine the bank’s independence and to pressure policymakers to substantially lower interest rates for political reasons.
François Villeroy de Galhau and Pablo Hernández de Cos, two leaders of the Bank for International Settlements, the central bank for central banks, also signed Tuesday’s statement. Last year, in his first speech as general manager at the bank, Mr. de Cos said that independence was one of the three key pillars of central banking.
“Independence allows central banks to take monetary policy decisions based on economic considerations in the long-term public interest, free from short-term political interference,” he said.
Central bankers expressed their support for Mr. Powell last year. After Mr. Powell received a handwritten note from Mr. Trump in the summer accusing him of costing the United States a fortune, Ms. Lagarde described Mr. Powell as “the standard of the courageous central banker” to a room was filled with global central bank officials, who all stood to applaud.
Eshe Nelson is a Times reporter based in London, covering economics and business news.
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