Lower food prices help ease Malawi inflation

(Reuters) - Good maize harvests continue to help drive down inflation in Malawi, with the headline number easing to 7.7 percent year-on-year in June from 7.9 percent in May, the National Statistical Office (NSO) said on Thursday.

It said food inflation, which accounts for 58.1 percent of the impoverished southern African country's Consumer Price Index (CPI), dipped to 6.8 percent.


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GDP to rebound as inflation slows: Fed's Hoenig

(Reuters) - "And that allows for the economy to continue to grow...and
slowly, hopefully, bring down the inflation rates for CPI , the core CPI, to levels even closer to 2
percent as we move forward," Hoenig said.




Government data out earlier on Wednesday revised U.S. first
quarter productivity growth down to 1.0 percent from the 1.7
percent initially thought, while unit labor costs were lifted
to 1.8 percent from a more modest 0.6 preliminary reading.


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Futures rise after tame core CPI data

(Reuters) - inflation measure rose less than expected in March, while consumer bellwether Coca-Cola Co. reported strong earnings.

Shares of Coca-Cola and health-care company Johnson & Johnson , also a Dow component, rose before the opening bell after they reported profits that beat Wall Street estimates.


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U.S. Stock Futures Drop Before Consumer Price Report; IBM, Intel Decline

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures dropped before a report that may show consumer prices rose the most in almost a year, giving the Federal Reserve less leeway to lower interest rates.

Consumer prices probably climbed 0.6 percent last month, the most since April 2006, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Fed officials said in minutes from their last policy meeting that higher borrowing costs may be needed to reduce inflation and gave no hint of a rate cut.


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S.Africa Feb CPIX slows to 4.9 pct yr/yr

(Reuters) - South Africa's targeted CPIX inflation rate rose by 4.9 percent in the year to February, below forecasts, after increasing by 5.3 percent in January, official data showed on Wednesday.

Figures from Statistics South Africa also indicated that the all-items consumer price index (CPI) increased by an annual rate of 5.7 percent in February compared to January's 6.0 percent.


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