Під санкції також потрапила низка осіб і компаній, пов’язаних із російською державною компанією «Росатом»
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U.S. consumer inflation eased in March, with less expensive gas and food providing some relief to households that have struggled under the weight of surging prices. Yet prices are still rising fast enough to keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise interest rates at least once more, beginning in May.

The government said Wednesday that consumer prices rose just 0.1% from February to March, down from 0.4% from January to February and the smallest increase since December.

Measured from a year earlier, prices were up just 5% in March, down sharply from February’s 6% year-over-year increase and the mildest such rise in nearly two years. Much of the drop resulted from price declines for such goods as gas, used cars and furniture, which had soared a year ago after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, though, so-called core inflation is still stubbornly high. Core prices rose 0.4% from February to March and 5.6% from a year earlier. The Fed and many private economists regard core prices as a better measure of underlying inflation. The year-over-year figure edged up for the first time in six months.

As goods prices have risen more slowly, helping cool inflation, costs in the nation’s services sector — everything from rents and restaurant meals to haircuts and auto insurance — have jumped, keeping core prices elevated.

“It’s comforting that headline inflation is coming down, but the inflation story has had some shifts under the hood in the last couple of years,” said Sonia Meskin, head of U.S. economics at BNY Mellon’s investment division. “Overall inflation still remains much too strong.”

Even so, the March data offered some signs that suggest inflation is slowly but steadily headed lower. Rental costs, which have been one of the main drivers of core inflation, rose at the slowest pace in a year. And grocery prices fell for the first time in 2 1/2 years.

Grocery prices dropped 0.3% from February to March. The cost of beef fell 0.3%, milk 1% and fresh fruits and vegetables 1.3%. Egg prices, which had soared after an outbreak of avian flu, plunged nearly 11% just in March, though they remain 36% more expensive than a year ago.

Despite last month’s decline, food costs are still up more than 8% in the past year. And restaurant prices, up 0.6% from February to March, have risen nearly 9% from a year ago.

Paul Saginaw, who owns Saginaw’s deli in Las Vegas, said nearly all the costs of a Reuben sandwich — his most popular — including corned beef, cheese and bread, have soared. He charges 10% more for a Reuben than he did 2 1/2 years ago, although he said “our costs have gone up a lot more” than that.

Saginaw is also paying more for paper goods and packaging, just as takeout and delivery orders have become a much bigger part of his business. One clamshell-style food container has jumped from 43 cents apiece to 98 cents.

“Everything we use has gone up,” he said.

Rich Pierson, a semi-retired owner of a financial planning business who was shopping this week at Doris Italian Market and Bakery in North Palm Beach, Florida, said high restaurant prices have led him and his wife to eat much more at home.

“We cook more at home than we ever have due to the rising costs,” he said. “You do look for the occasional deals and add value when you can — that’s for sure.”

Gas prices fell 4.6% just from February to March, a drop that partly reflected seasonal factors: Prices at the pump usually rise during spring. Gas costs have tumbled 17% over the past year.

Yet price increases in the service sector are keeping core inflation high, at least for now. That trend is widely expected to lead the Fed to raise its benchmark interest rate for a 10th straight time when it meets in May.

Travel costs are still rising as Americans make up for lost vacation time during the pandemic. Airline fares rose 4% from February to March and are up nearly 18% in the past year. Hotel prices jumped 2.7% last month and are up 7.3% from a year ago.

Among the biggest drivers of inflation has been rental costs, which make up one-third of the government’s consumer price index. Rental costs rose 0.5% from February to March. Though still high, that was the smallest such increase in a year.

According to Wednesday’s government report, rents have risen by about 9% from a year ago. Yet Apartment List, which tracks real-time changes in new leases, shows rents rising at a 2.6% annual pace. As more apartments reset with those smaller increases, the government’s inflation data should show milder increases in coming months.

“It’s something that’s certainly coming, there has been some moderation in rents,” said Mark Vitner, chief economist at Piedmont Crescent Capital.

Fed officials have projected that after one additional quarter-point hike next month — which would raise their benchmark rate to about 5.1%, its highest point in 16 years — they will pause their hikes but leave their key rate unchanged through 2023. But officials have cautioned that they could raise rates further if they deem it necessary to curb inflation.

When the Fed tightens credit with the goal of cooling the economy and inflation, it typically leads to higher rates on mortgages, auto loans, credit card borrowing and many business loans. The risk is that ever-higher borrowing rates can weaken the economy so much as to cause a recession.

On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund, a 190-nation lending organization, warned that persistently high inflation around the world — and efforts by central banks, including the Fed, to fight it — would likely slow global growth this year and next.

There are other signs that inflation pressures are easing. The Fed’s year-long streak of rate hikes are also starting to cool a hot labor market, with recent data showing that companies are advertising fewer openings and that wage growth has been slowing from historically elevated levels.

A more worrisome trend is the possibility that banks will pull sharply back on lending to conserve funds, after two large banks collapsed last month, igniting turmoil in the United States and overseas. Many smaller banks have lost customer deposits to huge global banks that are perceived to be too big to fail. The loss of those deposits will likely mean that those banks will extend fewer loans to companies and individuals.

Some small businesses say they are already having trouble getting loans, according to a survey by the National Federation for Independent Business. The IMF said Tuesday that pullbacks in lending could slow growth by nearly a half-percentage point over the next 12 months.

A slowdown in the economy could cool inflation and as a result would help the Fed achieve its objectives. But the blow to the economy might prove larger than expected. Under the worst-case scenario, it could mean a full-blown recession with the loss of millions of jobs.

 
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Billionaire Elon Musk has told the BBC that running Twitter has been “quite painful” but that the social media company is now roughly breaking even after he acquired it late last year.

In an interview also streamed live late Tuesday on Twitter Spaces, Musk discussed his ownership of the online platform, including layoffs, misinformation and his work style.

“It’s not been boring. It’s quite a rollercoaster,” he told the U.K. broadcaster at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters.

It was a rare chance for a mainstream news outlet to interview Musk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX. After buying Twitter for $44 billion last year, Musk’s changes included eliminating the company’s communications department.

Reporters who email the company to seek comment now receive an auto-reply with a poop emoji.

The interview was sometimes tense, with Musk challenging the reporter to back up assertions about rising levels of hate speech on the platform. At other times, Musk laughed at his own jokes, mentioning more than once that he wasn’t the CEO but his dog Floki was.

He also revealed that he sometimes sleeps on a couch at Twitter’s San Francisco office.

Advertisers who had shunned the platform in the wake of Musk’s tumultuous acquisition have mostly returned, the billionaire said, without providing details.

Musk predicted that Twitter could become “cash flow positive” in the current quarter “if current trends continue.” Because Twitter is a private company, information about its finances can’t be verified.

After acquiring the platform, Musk carried out mass layoffs as part of cost-cutting efforts. He said Twitter’s workforce has been slashed to about 1,500 employees from about 8,000 previously, describing it as something that had to be done.

“It’s not fun at all,” Musk said. “The company’s going to go bankrupt if we don’t cut costs immediately. This is not a caring-uncaring situation. It’s like if the whole ship sinks, then nobody’s got a job.”

Asked if he regretted buying the company, he said it was something that “needed to be done.”

“The pain level of Twitter has been extremely high. This hasn’t been some sort of party,” Musk said.
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Окрім молдовського та польського напрямку, також вирішують питання щодо відкриття експорту до Словаччини
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«У відкритті ринків переходимо на принцип роботи «дозволено все, що не заборонено»
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За словами Джанет Єллен, якщо війна триватиме далі, США співпрацюватимуть з партнерами, щоб надати те, чого потребує Україна
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With Turkey in the grip of soaring food prices, the Islamic holy month of Ramadan offers respite for some with free meals offered to break the day of fasting. Analysts say inflation now poses the biggest threat to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bid for reelection. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Оттава також запровадила санкції проти дев’яти компаній у Білорусі, пов’язаних із білоруським фінансовим сектором
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Many Americans aren’t yet sold on going electric for their next cars, a new poll shows, with high prices and too few charging stations the main deterrents. About 4 in 10 U.S. adults are at least somewhat likely to switch, but the history-making shift from the country’s century-plus love affair with gas-driven vehicles still has a ways to travel.

The poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago shows that the Biden administration’s plans to dramatically raise U.S. EV sales could run into resistance from consumers. Only 8% of U.S. adults say they or someone in their household owns or leases an electric vehicle, and just 8% say their household has a plug-in hybrid vehicle.

Even with tax credits of up to $7,500 to buy a new EV, it could be difficult to persuade drivers to ditch their gas-burning cars and trucks for vehicles without tailpipe emissions.

Auto companies are investing billions in factories and battery technology in an effort to speed up the switch to EVs to cut pollution and fight climate change. Under a greenhouse gas emissions proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency, about two-thirds of all new vehicle sales could have to be EVs by 2032. President Joe Biden has set a goal that up to half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030 to cut emissions and fight climate change.

But only 19% of U.S. adults say it’s “very” or “extremely” likely they would purchase an electric vehicle the next time they buy a car, according to the poll, and 22% say it’s somewhat likely. About half — 47% — say it’s not likely they would go electric.

Six in 10 said the high cost is a major reason they wouldn’t and about a quarter cited it as a minor reason. Only 16% said the high cost would not be a factor in rejecting the EV.

New electric vehicles now cost an average of more than $58,000, according to Kelley Blue Book, a price that’s beyond the reach of many U.S. households. (The average vehicle sold in the U.S. costs just under $46,000.) Tax credits approved under last year’s Inflation Reduction Act are designed to bring EV prices down and attract more buyers.

But new rules proposed by the U.S. Treasury Department could result in fewer electric vehicles qualifying for a full $7,500 federal tax credit later.

Many vehicles will only be eligible for half the full credit, $3,750, an amount that may not be enough to entice them away from less-costly gasoline-powered vehicles.

About three-quarters say too few charging stations is a reason they wouldn’t go electric, including half who call it a major reason. Two-thirds cite a preference for gasoline vehicles as a major or minor reason they won’t go electric.

“I’m an internal combustion engine kind of guy,” said Robert Piascik, 65, a musician who lives in Westerville, Ohio, a Columbus suburb. “I can’t see myself spending a premium to buy something that I don’t like as much as the lower-priced option.”

Although he has nothing against EVs and would consider buying one as the technology improves and prices fall, Piascik said the shorter traveling range, lack of places to charge and long refueling times would make it harder for him to go on trips.

In his 2017 BMW 3-Series, all he has to do is pull into a gas station and fill up in minutes, Piascik said. “The early adopters have to put up with a lack of infrastructure,” he said.

Biden has set a goal of 500,000 EV charging stations nationwide, and $5 billion from the 2021 infrastructure law has been set aside to install or upgrade chargers along 75,000 miles (120,000 kilometers) of highway from coast to coast.

Electric car giant Tesla will, for the first time, make some of its charging stations available to all U.S. electric vehicles by the end of next year, under a plan announced in February by the White House. The plan to open the nation’s largest and most reliable charging network to all drivers is a potential game-changer in promoting EV use, experts say.

High prices and a lack of available chargers are cited by at least half of Democrats and Republicans as main reasons for not buying an EV, but there’s a partisan divide in how Americans view electric vehicles. About half of Republicans, 54%, say a preference for gasoline-powered vehicles is a major reason for not buying an EV, while only 29% of Democrats say that.

James Rogers of Sacramento, California, a Democrat who voted for Biden, calls climate change an urgent problem, and he supports Biden’s overall approach. Still, he does not own an EV and isn’t planning to buy one, saying the price must come down and the charging infrastructure upgraded.

Even with a tax credit that could put the average price for a new EV close to $50,000, “it’s too much” money, said Rogers, 62, a retired customer service representative. He’s willing to pay as much as $42,000 for an EV and hopes the market will soon drive prices down, Rogers said.

In an encouraging finding for EV proponents, the poll shows 55% of adults under 30 say they are at least somewhat likely they will get an electric vehicle next time, as do 49% of adults ages 30 to 44, compared with just 31% of those 45 and older.

And people in the U.S. do see the benefits to an EV. Saving money on gasoline is the main factor cited by those who want to buy an EV, with about three-quarters of U.S. adults calling it a major or minor reason.

Making an impact on climate change is another big reason many would buy an EV, with 35% saying that reducing their personal impact on the climate is a major reason and 31% saying it’s a minor reason.
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