Analysis: Next Friday's PCE data release will provide clues on whether the Fed has achieved its inflation target

Odaily According to reports, shortly before the CPI report was released, US Treasury Secretary Besant predicted that inflation "could return to near the Fed's 2% target around mid-year." He was likely referring to the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index at the time. Due to the government shutdown, the latest available data is the core PCE inflation rate from November last year, which was 2.8%. The core PCE price index for December is scheduled for release on February 20th, with current forecasts predicting core inflation at 2.8%. It will take some time before data for January becomes available. Historically, the average increase in CPI has typically been about 0.5 percentage points higher than PCE. (Jin10)