Tuesday’s inflation figures won’t soothe the poor bruised Federal Reserve (the Fed).
What does this mean?
The Fed was thinking of speeding up interest rate hikes just a few days ago, but the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) will have given it pause for thought – and maybe a few pangs of conscience for good measure. After all, the Fed’s record-fast rate hikes helped set up some of the dominoes that toppled SVB. And if that debacle didn’t muddy the waters enough, February’s inflation data has come along to finish the job. On the one hand, the 6% annual rise and monthly uptick of 0.4% were pretty much what folk expected. But on the other, the slowdown in goods inflation seems to be wearing off – bad news,
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