Inflation climbed to a new 40-year high in the US in May, raising the chances that the Federal Reserve will launch more aggressive interest rate hikes in the coming months in a bid to curb prices.
In particular, the consumer price index rose by 8.6% from a year earlier, after rising last month by 8.3%, as announced today by the US Department of Commerce. This is the highest inflation since 1981.
Since last month, the index has risen 1%, beating analysts’ estimates that it was expected to rise 0.7%, according to a Wall Street Journal poll.
The structural index, which does not include energy and food, increased by 0.6% from month to month and 6% from a year earlier, slowing slightly from 6.2% in the previous month.
The Fed has already doubled its interest rates by a total of 75 basis points, launching a policy tightening following its highly accommodating policies to help the US economy overcome the coronavirus pandemic.
Strong inflation measurements may force the central bank to raise interest rates sharply in order to bring prices under control, at the risk of derailing the growth of the US economy.
Most analysts expect the Fed to raise interest rates by 50 basis points at next week’s monetary policy meeting (June 14-15) and July (26-27) to then slow the uptrend to 25 basis points. .
Source: Capital
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