U.S. producer prices rose in March from a year earlier at the fastest pace in nearly a year, offering more evidence that progress against inflation may have stalled this year and raising doubts about whether and when the Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates.
FILE - A man walks past a tanker at a Chevron gas station in San Francisco, Oct. 23, 2023. On Thursday, April 11, 2024, the Labor Department releases producer prices data for March. – U.S. producer prices rose in March from a year earlier at the fastest pace in nearly a year, offering more evidence that progress against inflation may have stalled this year and raising doubts about the timing of any interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve.
In the face of aggressive Fed rate hikes, inflation had fallen steadily after peaking in mid-2022. But the improvements have lately proven harder to come by. Combating a resurgence of inflation that began in the spring of 2021, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate 11 times between March 2022 and July 2023, lifting it to a 23-year high. The central bank has signaled that it expects to cut rates three times this year — a reversal in policy that has been eagerly awaited on Wall Street.
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