By Khulile Thwala
The United States dollar suffered a sharp decline on Wednesday following the release of data that revealed consumer prices in the United States rose less than anticipated in March.
The surprising result has prompted experts to speculate that the Federal Reserve may halt its rate-hiking efforts, possibly after a rate increase in May.
A report from Africanews suggests that the implications of this latest development are significant, as the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decisions can have a major impact on the global economy.
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It is further reported that last month’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) only saw a 0.1 per cent climb, falling short of economist’s forecasted 0.2 per cent gain and marking a decrease from the 0.4 per cent rise observed in February.
Over the 12 months leading up to March, the CPI is said to increased increase by 5.0 per cent, which represents the smallest year-on-year gain since May 2021. By comparison, the CPI had risen by 6.0 per cent on a year-on-year basis in February.
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Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the CPI increased 0.4 per cent last month after rising 0.5 per cent in February. The Fed says sticky rents continued to drive core CPI.
“Headline inflation coming down more than expected is backing the view of the Fed is basically one more and done,” Reuters quoted Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Convera in Washington, D.C. in a report.
