Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell had an "informal dinner" with President Trump, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida on Monday night to discuss "recent economic developments and the outlook for growth, employment and inflation," according to a statement released by the Fed.
Why it matters: Meetings between Fed chairs and presidents are not unheard of, but Powell has faced unprecedented criticism from Trump about the Fed's interest rate hikes.
- The Fed dialed back expectations for future rate hikes at last week's policy meeting, though Powell reiterated the Fed's political independence.
- According to the Fed's statement, Powell did not talk about future monetary policy plans at the dinner, "except to stress that the path of policy will depend entirely on incoming economic information and what that means for the outlook."
