The Federal Reserve took charge of the global response to coronavirus on Tuesday, cutting its main policy rate by half a percentage point as the group of seven leading nations pointed to the “downside risks” from the spread of the disease.
In a unanimous statement from the Fed’s Open Market Committee, the members declared “the fundamentals of the US economy remain strong”, but added that the fast-spreading virus “poses evolving risks to economic activity”.
The Fed’s move — its first emergency rate cut since the peak of the global financial crisis — came after G7 finance ministers and central bank governors pledged to take “all appropriate policy tools” to maintain the economic health of the advanced world.