WASHINGTON – American consumers were even more confident about the economy in December and less concerned about inflation, despite the rise of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, according to a survey released Wednesday. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index jumped nearly four points to 115.8 compared to the prior month. And November’s index, which originally … Read more
WASHINGTON: A key US inflation measure closely watched by the Federal Reserve in October posted its biggest year-over-year increase since the early 1990s amid supply chain bottlenecks, the US Commerce Department reported on Wednesday. The personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index, the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, jumped five per cent in October from a year … Read more
WASHINGTON: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday she expects the current record-high inflation to ease, with monthly rates falling back to 0.2 per cent or 0.3 per cent in the second half of 2022. “I’m hoping and expecting in the second half of next year, to see monthly CPI (consumer price index) rates coming … Read more
WASHINGTON: The sharp rise in the US inflation even as the labour market rapidly improves means the Federal Reserve should remove stimulus from the economy more quickly, a central bank official said. The Fed this month began slowing the pace of bond purchases it started early in the pandemic to provide liquidity to the economy but … Read more
