The Federal Reserve’s war on inflation isn’t over. After five days of turmoil in the banking sector, financial markets had all but written off the prospect of additional interest-rate increases. But the latest consumer price index shows why that assessment was premature.
The new numbers Tuesday showed the core CPI rose 0.5% from a month earlier, exceeding (albeit only slightly) the median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey. On a three-month annualized basis, the report put core CPI at around 5.2%, highlighting the challenge facing the Fed as it tries to juggle both sides of its inflation and full employment dual mandate.
