Official figures released in the UK show that inflation remained at 6.7% in September. The rate of food and beverage price increases stopped, but rising gasoline costs offset the decline. The persistent inflation rate is over three times the Bank of England s target rate of 2%. The Bank is not expected to raise interest rates at its upcoming policy meeting in November. Worldwide, central banks have raised interest rates to counter supply chain disruptions and rising costs.
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin said on Tuesday that the U.S. central bank still has time to decide on its next interest rate move as anecdotal information points to an economy that’s slowing amid a cooling trend in inflation pressures. “I see an economy that is much further along the path to demand normalization than much of the data would tell you,” even as “the path for inflation isn’t clear yet,” Barkin said in the text of a speech to be delivered before the Real Estate Roundtable in Washington. Having held rates steady at the September Federal Open Market Committee meeting, Barkin said “we have time to see if we have done enough, or whether there’s more work to do.”
Data from national statistics agency INEI showed the key index based on the metropolitan region of Lima slowed to its lowest level since August 2021, when it stood at 4.95%. On a month-to-month basis the Lima Consumer Price Index, Peru's inflation benchmark, inched up 0.02% in September, well below the 0.38% increase in August. The figures are a boost to Peru's bid to wrestle inflation back to the central bank's official target of 2%, plus or minus one percentage point.
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said on Friday it's quite possible the central bank will raise rates again. "We probably have some work to do" with monetary policy to bring inflation back to 2%, Mester said in a CNBC interview. She said the key issue for the central bank is to decide how restrictive monetary policy needs to be, and how long it needs to stay at those levels.