April 11, 2024
United States:
Williams Signals Fed Still Has Work to Do in Its Inflation Fight
Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said the central bank has made “tremendous progress” toward better balance on its inflation and employment goals, but acknowledged policymakers are not yet done.
“The economy has come a long way toward achieving better balance and reaching our 2% inflation goal,” Williams said in prepared remarks Thursday at the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York Member Symposium. “But we have not seen the total alignment of our dual mandate quite yet.”
Europe:
ECB Holds Interest Rates and Points to First Cut in June
The European Central Bank held interest rates steady for a fifth meeting, while sending its clearest signal yet that cooling inflation will soon allow it to commence cuts.
The deposit rate was left at a record-high 4%, as overwhelmingly predicted by a Bloomberg poll. But the Governing Council flagged a possible reduction in its accompanying statement for the first time, contingent on its economic forecasts indicating consumer-price growth is safely headed to 2%.
Asia:
China Inflation Stalls as US Speeds, Adding to Pressure on Yuan
China’s consumer prices barely increased from a year earlier and industrial prices continued to slump, underscoring the deflationary pressures that remain a key threat to the economy’s recovery.
The consumer price index rose 0.1% in March from the prior year, the National Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday. The median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey was a 0.4% gain. The inflation rate dropped from 0.7% in February, when it had climbed above zero for the first time in six months during the Lunar New Year holiday. Producer prices fell for an 18th straight month.
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