New York Fed intervenes to control benchmark interest rate

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Tuesday injected billions of dollars in cash into the markets to bring down short-term borrowing costs that threatened to push up its target range for the benchmark interest rate.

The New York Fed said Tuesday morning in a statement that it would conduct an overnight repurchase agreement (repo) operation with Wall Street primary dealers, with an aggregate amount of up to 75 billion U.S. dollars, to help maintain the federal funds rate within the target range of 2 to 2.5 percent.

The central bank finally injected around 53 billion dollars through transactions known as repurchase agreements, as it seeks to control the level of its benchmark interest rate.

Late Tuesday, the New York Fed said it would conduct another overnight repo operation of 75 billion dollars Wednesday morning to keep the benchmark interest rate in check.

The move came as Fed officials began a two-day policy meeting on Tuesday to discuss whether to cut interest rates further amid mixed economic signals and ongoing trade tensions.

Fed trimmed the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to a target range of 2 percent to 2.25 percent in July, the first rate cut since the 2008 global financial crisis.

Trading in interest rate futures tracked by CME Group on Tuesday indicated a 47-percent chance the central bank would cut rates by another 25 basis points this week.