The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that US inflation eased in March, increasing at the weakest level since May 2021.
Lower than February's 0.4% month-to-month and 6% annual rise, March's Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase was 0.1% over the previous month and 5.0% from a year earlier.
The numbers were marginally better than what economists had predicted. The Federal Reserve's attempts to curb inflation risk sending the economy into recession if rates are hiked too quickly, but the 5% inflation rate is still far over the 2% objective, according to a report from Yahoo! Finance.
The Food at Home Index in the United States decreased by 0.3% in March, the first monthly decrease since September 2020. Egg prices, which plummeted by almost 11%, and production costs, which fell by 1.3%, contributed to this.
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Refinitiv forecasted a 0.2% monthly rise and a 5.2% yearly climb. Thus the results exceeded expectations. The annual rate of rise in the core CPI, which excludes the more volatile food and energy categories, was 5.6%, up 0.4% from the previous month, per CNN. This was slower than February's annual and monthly increases of 0.5% and 5.5%, respectively.
Experts See US Inflation Data as Crucial
The Federal Reserve policy meeting is scheduled for May. Thus the timing of the publication of the most recent inflation statistics is crucial. According to The Financial Times, this information follows the March employment report, which showed that the labor market is healthy despite a slowdown in monthly job growth.
It's unclear at this time whether or not the Fed will raise interest rates by another quarter point before calling off its strong monetary policy campaign against rising inflation.
Recent banking crises in the United States have led some policymakers to speculate that a credit crisis may occur, negating the necessity of another hike.
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