Washington: Steven Mnuchin, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for US Treasury secretary, said he’ll explore issuing debt maturing in more than 30 years to cushion the effect of rising interest rates.
“Interest rates are going to stay relatively low for the next couple of years,” Mnuchin said Wednesday in an interview on CNBC. Among other initiatives, “we’ll look at potentially extending the maturity of the debt, because eventually we are going to have higher interest rates, and that’s something that this country is going to need to deal with.”
Asked if he would consider maturities as long as 50 years or 100 years, Mnuchin said: “We’ll take a look at everything.”
Mnuchin, appearing with Trump’s Commerce secretary pick, Wilbur Ross, outlined his priorities for the Treasury role, including tax cuts to boost economic growth, regulations to encourage bank lending and determining whether to label China a currency manipulator.
Mnuchin said Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has done a “good job,” adding that a priority of the administration will be to fill the two vacancies on the Fed’s Board of Governors.
