US Fed officials express concern over absence of additional advancements in inflation

5/23/2024 4:09:00 AM

(MENAFN) Minutes from a recent meeting revealed that US Federal Reserve officials are apprehensive about the absence of additional advancements in inflation over the past few months.

"The recent monthly data had showed significant increases in components of both goods and services price inflation," as per the minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest two-day meeting, which concluded on May 1st,

Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members noted that inflation for core services, excluding housing, exhibited an uptick during the first quarter compared to the previous quarter. Additionally, prices of core goods saw their first three-month increase in several months, as observed by the committee members.

"In addition, housing services inflation had slowed less than had been anticipated based on the smaller increases in measures of market rents over the past year," it stated.

During the last meeting, certain members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) indicated "a willingness" to implement additional monetary policy tightening measures if "risks to inflation materialize."

While the Federal Reserve opted to maintain its federal funds rate within the target range of 5.25 percent to 5.5 percent on May 1, a decision widely anticipated by market observers, Chair Jerome Powell conveyed during a post-meeting news conference that the likelihood of an interest rate hike remains low, despite inflation persisting above the Fed's 2 percent target.

In April, producer inflation registered a 2.2 percent increase annually and a 0.5 percent uptick on a monthly basis, both surpassing market expectations. However, consumer inflation for the same period showed an annual rise of 3.4 percent and a monthly increase of 0.3 percent, exhibiting a slowdown compared to March's figures.

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