020 7898 0500On a day where monetary policy normalisation seemed to dominate the news, it was perhaps fitting that US producer prices for March came in stronger than forecast. The producer price index rose by 0.3% in March which is an increase of the 0.2% rise in February and much higher than the 0.1% analysts predicted.
This will provide further encouragement for further US interest rate rises and we could yet see four rate hikes in 2018 (despite Jerome Powell saying there would only be three). It will be fascinating to see what the central banks do throughout this year.
Today we have the inflation rate for March which is expected to increase slightly, as well as the Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes. We will also see March’s monthly budget statement, which is expected to narrow to $-194 billion from $-215 billion.
