A supermarket in New York: Rent and groceries are still getting more expensive in the USA
Quelle: AFP/YUKI IWAMURA
US consumers and investors breathe a sigh of relief: US inflation has fallen for the eighth straight month. In February, the inflation rate was 6.0 percent. At the next interest rate meeting, the US Federal Reserve will also have to consider the failure of the Silicon Valley Bank.
In the US, inflation has continued to fall. Consumer prices rose 6.0 percent year-on-year in February, the Washington Department of Labor said on Tuesday. That was 0.4 percentage points less than in January and the lowest since September 2021.
Rents, which according to the ministry accounted for more than half of the monthly increase, rose again particularly significantly. Food was also more expensive, while energy was cheaper.
Inflation in the US rose sharply last year as a result of the corona pandemic and the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. In June 2022, the inflation rate reached a 40-year high of 9.1 percent. In the fight against inflation, the US Federal Reserve has raised interest rates eight times in the past twelve months.
Central bank takes into account collapse of Silicon Valley bank when making interest rate decision
The interest rate margin is now between 4.5 and 4.75 percent, which is the highest it was in 2007. In recent months, the Fed has slowed down the rate hikes; but it could now pick up the pace again, as central bank chief Jerome Powell promised a week ago. An increase of a quarter of a percentage point is expected on the futures markets.
The Fed wants to cool the economy further in order to move inflation towards the 2 percent target. The central bank will decide on a new interest rate hike on March 21st and 22nd. The decision is complicated by the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in California.
The authorities closed the bank, which is mainly active in the technology sector, on Friday. The SVB got into a dramatic imbalance when customers wanted to withdraw their deposits on a large scale and the SVB had to sell securities at a great loss. The collapse of the bank has also caused turbulence in Europe and raised fears of a major financial crisis.
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