Trump says 'not thrilled' about U.S. interest rate hikes

Thomson Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday told CNBC that he was "not thrilled" about the Federal Reserve's decision to hike interest rates, according to the television network.

"I’m not thrilled," he said in an interview, according to CNBC. "Because we go up and every time you go up they want to raise rates again. I don't really - I am not happy about it. But at the same time I’m letting them do what they feel is best."

"I don’t like all of this work that we’re putting into the economy and then I see rates going up," he said, according to CNBC.

Trump added that he was concerned that the Fed's rate hikes may put the United States at a "disadvantage" while the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank keep their monetary policy loose, CNBC said.

His remarks to CNBC were not the first time that Trump has departed from a long-standing practice of U.S. presidents steering clear of commenting on Fed policy and the value of the dollar.

The U.S. dollar index <.DXY> cut its gains after Trump's comments that the strong dollar "puts us at a disadvantage," while yields on U.S. Treasury securities hit session lows. U.S. stock prices briefly pared losses after Trump's comments on interest rates.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Tim Ahmann; additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch in New York; Editing by David Alexander and Chizu Nomiyama)

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