Core Personal Consumption Expenditure, which is the key metric for the Federal Reserve when considering short-term interest rate levels, came in this morning unchanged and well below the 2% Fed target.
The number was 1.6% for the year and flat for the month of March. The estimates were slightly higher at 0.1% MoM and 1.7% for the year. The MoM number for February was 0.1%.
Personal spending for March was slightly higher than the consensus at 0.9% vs 0.7% expected.
These numbers will give the Fed reason to keep short-term rates stable through at least the Summer.
