President lacks the power to reboot a weakening dollar

The July meeting of the US Federal Reserve concluded last week as expected, with no changes to monetary policy. The Central Bank maintained the target range for the federal funds rate at 1%-1.25%.

The text of the statement contained no major surprises. Its description of the economy’s performance was very similar to the June version, stating that the labour market has continued to strengthen and that economic activity has been rising moderately.

There was a change to the Fed’s characterisation of the current inflationary environment.