Economy

Tariff Crisis  US-China Relations
Trump: Not Talking About Iran with Xi – It’s Under Control

Donald Trump will talk more about trade than the Iran War with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at their summit in Beijing on Wednesday and Thursday, the president said, according to Bloomberg.

– We’ll talk to President Xi about a lot of things. But more than anything else, I would say trade, Trump told reporters at the White House.

The reason they won’t talk about the Middle East is that the US “has Iran very much under control,” the president said.

Trump is said to be keen to secure business deals during the trip. According to CNBC, the president has asked more than a dozen corporate executives to join him on the trip, including Tesla’s Elon Musk, Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg and Apple’s Tim Cook.

Fed vs. inflation
Fed top: The figure may be a sign of overheating

The inflation figures show that price pressures in the US are extensive and may indicate overheating. This is what Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee says in a comment on Tuesday's unexpectedly high CPI.

- If you look at non-energy components, such as services, if it is a sign that the underlying economy is overheating, then the Fed needs to think about how to break the chain of escalating inflation, Goolsbee says in an interview with the public service company NPR.

Inflation rose to 3.8 percent at an annual rate in April, which is higher than expected.

Economist: Energy shock has not had a broad impact

The oil shock from the Iran war has still not spilled over to any great extent into the rest of the economy in Tuesday's US inflation report. This is stated by Natixis economist Christopher Hodge, according to Bloomberg.

"Although the energy shock is felt in some parts, such as airline prices, it is still unclear how broadly it will have a positive impact on the economy," he writes in a comment.

Bloomberg links the fact that the market initially seemed to react in the positive direction despite both the CPI and core CPI for April coming in slightly higher than expected to the fact that investors' greatest concern has been the second-hand effects on inflation from the war.

Capital Economics chief economist Stephen Brown warns against dismissing the rise in energy and food prices because they risk pushing up inflation expectations, the news agency writes.

US inflation higher than expected – gasoline prices surge 28 percent

Inflation in the US increased to 3.8 percent at an annual rate in April, up from 3.3 percent in March. This is according to figures from the US statistical agency BLS. An increase of 3.7 percent was expected, according to Trading Economics' consensus forecast.

Core inflation of 2.8 percent was also slightly higher than expected.

Among other things, gasoline prices rose by 28.4 percent, while the energy category as a whole increased by 17.9 percent at an annual rate.