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Customer in a supermarket in Chicago (in April): Goods are still becoming increasingly expensive
PHOTO: JIM VONDRUSKA/ REUTERS
In the USA, prices have been rising faster than in Germany for a long time.
They are still doing so, although inflation eased a bit in April for the first time since August 2021.
The inflation rate for goods and services fell to 8.3 percent from 8.5 percent in March, the Labor Department said.
Experts had expected an even stronger decline to 8.1 percent.
In March, the rate of inflation in the USA had reached its highest level since the end of 1981.
Material bottlenecks and increased energy costs, also as a result of the Ukraine war, keep the price pressure high.
The US Federal Reserve is already taking countermeasures.
With a view to the hot labor market, it recently carried out the largest interest rate hike in 22 years.
At the beginning of the month, the monetary watchdogs unanimously decided to increase the interest rate range by half a percentage point from 0.75 to 1.00 percent.
The central bank signaled that further strong upward steps would follow in order to keep inflation in check.
Some experts now see the April decline as at least a sign that inflation has probably peaked: "But this does not mean that the inflation problem has been solved," said Commerzbank economist Christoph Balz.
Although inflation is now somewhat lower, "we can't speak of relaxation with an annual inflation rate of over eight percent," said Helaba economist Ulrich Wortberg.
LBBW analyst Dirk Clench also assumes that the rate of inflation in the USA has already peaked.
Among other things, this also indicates that “the proportion of small businesses that have increased their selling prices fell slightly in April”.
However, the lockdowns in some megacities in China and the war in Ukraine posed significant risks for this forecast.
fdi/Reuters
