Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell meets with President Trump at the White House

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell met with President Trump at the White House on Thursday to discuss economic growth and other goals, the central bank said in a statement.

The meeting, which came at Mr. Trump’s invitation, comes after the president has repeatedly pressed Mr. Powell to lower the Fed’s benchmark rate. Mr. Trump earlier this month called Mr. Powell a “fool” for acting “too late” in cutting rates.

At the meeting, Powell told the president that the Fed will make its decisions based on “careful, objective, and non-political analysis,” according to the statement. Powell did not discuss actions he expects to take, the Fed said. 

Powell did, however, indicate that “the path of policy will depend entirely on incoming economic information and what that means for the outlook,” the central bank added. 

He also stressed that monetary policy will support “maximum employment and stable prices,” referring to the Fed’s dual mandate of keeping unemployment and inflation low.

—This is breaking news and will be updated.