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In March, America’s annual inflation rate dropped to 5%, the lowest it has been since May 2021. However, the core inflation rate, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, increased to 5.6%. There was positive news regarding energy prices, with natural gas prices for consumers falling by 7.1% on a month-by-month basis, and petrol dropping by over 4%. Despite this, other data showed a solid monthly increase in the number of jobs created, leading markets to expect the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point again when it meets in early May.
The IMF has slightly reduced its estimate of growth in the world economy this year to 2.8%. It expects America’s GDP to increase by 1.6% and the euro area’s by 0.8%, although Britain’s could shrink by 0.3%. The fund stated that “the fog around the world economic outlook had thickened,” partly due to the recent stress in financial markets caused by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse. It also warned of the dangers from investors pricing in lower interest-rate increases.
Ueda Kazuo has begun his term as the Bank of Japan’s governor. At his first news conference, Mr. Ueda reiterated his commitment to sticking, for now, with the central bank’s ultra-loose policy of negative interest rates and controls on government-bond yields. In December, the bank raised its cap on ten-year government-bond yields from 0.25% to 0.5% amid market pressure.
2023-04-13 08:28:57
Original from www.economist.com