Former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said Sunday that concerns about negative interest rates did not lead the Fed to raise interest rates earlier than some policymakers expected.
"The possibility of negative interest rates worries every policymaker," Fisher said at a farewell event in Jerusalem for Karnit Flug, the president of the Israeli Central Bank. Fisher served as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve for three and a half years and left office in October last year.
"What really worries us is,'If we raise interest rates, do we have to cut interest rates after that? If we have to cut interest rates, will interest rates drop to a negative value?'" Fisher said, "this has led to the avoidance of raising interest rates. So interest rates have been maintained at zero to 25 basis points for several years.
"Most of the public do not want to see negative interest rates, so we are lucky not to have that."
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