Bernard denies pushing for interest rate cuts, pointing out that the model shows that a reduction of 150 basis points is needed to reach the neutral interest rate.

US Treasury Secretary Benett said that he is not calling for a series of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, but only pointing out that models suggest the "neutral" rate is about 1.5 percentage points lower than the current level. "I did not tell the Federal Reserve what to do," Benett said in an interview on Thursday, referring to his comments the day before about the Fed "being able to start a series of interest rate cuts now." Benett said on Thursday, "What I said is that to reach the neutral rate, it would take a cut of about 150 basis points."