U.S. inflationary pressures were steady in March as the U.S. future inflation gauge rose to 116.4 from a revised 116.3 in February, originally reported as 115.9, according to data released Friday by the Economic Cycle Research Institute.
“Underlying inflationary pressures edged up in March but remained restrained,” according to ECRI.
The smoothed annualized growth rate, a comparison of the latest figures to the preceding year’s average level, narrowed to negative 3.9% from negative 4.8%.
The March increase was driven by inflationary moves in measures of commodity prices and vendor performance, mostly offset by disinflationary moves in measures of interest rates and loans, ECRI said.
“The USFIG remains in a cyclical downtrend, confirming that U.S. inflation pressures are still subdued,” ECRI said in a release.
