Institutions: Inflation data doesn't seem to leave room for Fed rate cuts

Inflation data does not signal a rate cut to the Federal Reserve, writes Steven Blitz, chief U.S. economist at TS Lombard. Although the CPI fell from 3 per cent to 2.8 per cent in February, ‘there are enough anomalies in the data to cast doubt on any attempts to view it as a trend.’ Blitz said commodity prices excluding food and energy grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.7% in February, an improvement from 3.5% in January, but still volatile. He said this was ‘the category where the impact of tariffs was most pronounced in the first round.’ Eventually, employment will continue to rise, and so will inflation.