As the recovery accelerates, the U.S. inflation indicator jumps

Closely watched inflation indicators U.S. Federal Reserve The increase in April exceeded expectations, the largest year-on-year increase since the 1990s, which may trigger new concerns about price increases.

The Ministry of Commerce’s core personal consumption expenditure index (excluding fluctuating food and energy costs) rose 3.1% last month from a year ago. Compared with the 1.9% annual growth rate in March, this surge represents a substantial increase and is higher than the generally expected 2.9% increase.

On a monthly basis, the core PCE index rose 0.7% last month, compared with 0.4% in March.

This will make the core PCE price index far higher than the Fed’s 2% target, reaching its highest level since the 1990s.

The PCE price index may surge Issue a new alert As the pandemic subsided and demand surged, the U.S. economic recovery overheated.but Fed officials It has been stated that they believe that most of the factors driving changes are temporary, such as heavy fiscal stimulus and supply chain bottlenecks, and inflation may come down later this year.

Since last year, the Fed has taken a more tolerant approach to respond inflation, And strive to achieve a moderately higher price increase relative to its target in order to make up for years of low inflation and more effectively promote full employment.

But U.S. central bank officials also insist that they are prepared to take action if recorded inflation or inflation expectations seem to be out of control.

Including fluctuating energy and food prices, the PCE price index rose 3.6% compared to April 2020, which was much higher than the 2.4% increase in March.

Data released in the same report showed that personal income fell by 13.1% in April, as stimulus payments began to fade and consumption increased by 0.5%.

As the U.S. economy recovers from the pandemic, investors have generally ignored rising inflation rates, and they have prepared for a temporary rise in consumer prices.

After the release, the $21 trillion US government bond market has stabilized, and the yields of longer-term Treasury bonds have hardly changed.

The benchmark 10-year bond, which affects global borrowing costs, is currently trading at 1.61%. It hovered around 0.9% at the end of last year and reached a recent peak of 1.78% in March.