The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged at their 1 November meeting; Chairman Powell noted that this was a pause to let the 100-basis point increase in rates over the past year take full effect. This week, an initial sign that progress was being made was the October Consumer Price Index which remained unchanged.  However, much of that was due to flagging energy prices, which dropped 2.5 percent after large increases in August and September.  The CPI year-over-year was 3.2 percent; in October 2022 the 12-month CPI was 7.7 percent. Looking at different benchmarks, inflation was still up 4.4 percent over the August through October period. Looking at core inflation – the Fed’s benchmark, which excludes energy an...

TAGS – North America, Macroeconomics