US President Donald Trump on Tuesday hailed cooler-than-expected April inflation data and reiterated his call for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, as analysts warned that his tariffs may still fuel price hikes in the months ahead.
The April data covers the early days of Trump’s new levies against most countries — including steep duties on China — which spooked financial markets and raised fears of a spike in US prices.
Trump has since scaled back some of the duties and paused others, helping to soothe nervous investors, though tariffs remain well above their recent historical average.
The consumer price index (CPI) eased to 2.3 per cent in April from a year ago, a tick below the 2.4 per cent figure recorded in March, the Labour Department said in a statement.
The April CPI release was the smallest 12-month increase since February 2021, and was slightly lower than the median estimate from surveys of economists conducted by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
“No Inflation, and Prices of Gasoline, Energy, Groceries, and practically everything else, are DOWN!!!” Trump wrote on social media.
He also took aim again at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over the central bank’s recent decision to continue holding interest rates steady.
AFP
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