On Friday’s Bloomberg “Balance of Power” broadcast, Jared Bernstein, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, reacted to April’s personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index, saying that “the lull in deflation in the first quarter of this year was likely due to an unusual factor, some residual seasonality,” and that the consensus was that “the deflationary forces that were so helpful later in the year” are still present.
“I think a lot of people agreed that the slump in deflation in the first quarter of this year was probably due to an unusual factor, some residual seasonality. And as you just said, the data is trending more smoothly, whether it’s the CPI or the PCE in April, which is very welcome news, but we’re only a month in. So we, and of course central banks, including the ones you just mentioned, need to have more confidence in their projections. But I think the deflationary forces that have helped us so much in the second half of the year are still there,” Bernstein said.
He later added, “We still have a lot of work to do on the pricing side. Prices are still too high, and we’re going to continue to aggressively reduce costs.”
of report The year-on-year changes in headline and core PCE were unchanged from the previous month at 2.7% and 2.8%, respectively. Also, the month-on-month change in headline PCE was unchanged at 0.3%, while the month-on-month change in core PCE decreased from 0.3% in March to 0.2% in April.
to follow Ian Hanchett’s Twitter Ian Hanchett
