Top Federal Reserve Official Defends Central Bank's Independence In Wake Of Trump Win

A Federal Reserve official gave a lengthy defense of the central bank's political independence Thursday, just days after former President Donald Trump, an outspoken Fed critic , won re-election.

"It has been widely recognized - and is a finding of economic research - that central bank independence is fundamental to achieving good policy and good economic outcomes," Adriana Kugler, one of the seven members of the Fed's governing board, said in prepared remarks for an economic conference in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Kugler added that the research in particular finds that greater independence for central banks in advanced economies is related to lower inflation.

Kugler spoke just a week after Fed Chair Jerome Powell tersely denied that Trump had the legal authority to fire him, as the president-elect has acknowledged he considered doing during his first term. Powell also said he wouldn't resign if Trump asked.

"I was threatening to terminate him, there was a question as to whether or not you could," Trump said last month at the Economic Club of Chicago.