US Import Prices Miss Expectations Highlight Low Inflation

U.S. import prices rose less than expected in April as increases in the cost of petroleum and food were tempered by the largest decrease in the price of capital goods in 10 years, suggesting inflation could remain tame for a while.

The Labor Department said on Tuesday import prices increased 0.2% last month after an unrevised 0.6% increase in March. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast import prices would climb 0.7% in April.



In the 12 months through April, import prices fell 0.2% after edging up 0.1% in March.

Data last week showed moderate producer and consumer price increases in April, underscoring the Federal Reserve’s projection of no further interest rate increases this year. Economists say inflation is also not too low for the U.S. central bank to cut rates this year.

The Fed early this month kept rates unchanged and signaled little inclination to adjust monetary policy anytime soon. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said he believed the weak inflation readings “may wind up being transient.”

via CNBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza