The Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged at 4.25% to 4.5% and offered no clues on whether it will resume its rate cuts in September.

The Federal Reserve kept US interest rates on hold for the fifth meeting in a row yesterday, defying an aggressive campaign from President Donald Trump to slash borrowing costs. Fed chair Jay Powell said after the meeting that “it seems to me — and to almost the whole committee — that the economy is not performing as though restrictive policy is holding it back inappropriately”.