Euro-Zone Inflation Rate Stays at Lowest Level in Over Four Years

Figures Underline the Scale of the Challenge Facing the ECB

The Wall Street Journal

By PAUL HANNON And TODD BUELL CONNECT

Updated June 30, 2014 6:38 a.m. ET

The euro zone's annual rate of inflation was unchanged in June, stuck at its lowest level in more than four years, while bank lending to households and businesses declined in May.

The ECB took steps on June 5 designed to stave off the threat of dangerously low inflation in Europe, including cutting a key interest rate below zero for the first time to get banks to lend more to credit-starved customers.

Japan’s Inflation Accelerates as Abe Seeks Wage Gains

By Chikako Mogi, Masahiro Hidaka and James Mayger  Jan 31, 2014 3:49 AM GMT+0200

Japan’s inflation accelerated in December, industrial output gained and a measure of demand for workers strengthened, signaling gains for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s campaign to end two decades of stagnation.

Prices excluding fresh food increased 1.3 percent from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said today in Tokyo, above a median estimate of 1.2 percent in a Bloomberg survey of 32 economists. Industrial production rose 1.1 percent from the previous month, while the number of jobs for every seeker rose to 1.03, exceeding 1 for the first the time since October 2007.

Low Inflation Tests World's Central Banks

Subdued Prices Persist Despite Years of Easy Money; Deflation Still a Threat

By SUDEEP REDDY in Washington, BRIAN BLACKSTONE in Frankfurt and JASON DOUGLAS in London

The Wall Street Journal

Updated Dec. 17, 2013 7:28 p.m. ET

Inflation is slowing across the developed world despite ultralow interest rates and unprecedented money-printing campaigns, posing a dilemma for the Federal Reserve and other major central banks as they plot their next policy moves.

Slower China inflation reduces worries of tighter policy

BY KEVIN YAO

BEIJING Mon Dec 9, 2013 2:58am EST

(Reuters) - China's annual consumer inflation unexpectedly slowed in November, easing market fears of any imminent policy tightening as authorities meet this week to outline their policy and reform priorities for 2014.

Rising money market rates and bond yields indicate the People's Bank of China (PBOC) is tightening liquidity conditions, to reduce debt levels and contain credit growth, but there is little sign of a sharp turnaround in monetary policy.

Annual consumer inflation unexpectedly slowed to 3 percent in November from an eight-month high of 3.2 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. Analysts had expected the inflation rate to hold steady at October's level.

Around the World, Inflation Is Falling to Levels Not Seen for Years

The New York  Times

November 15, 2013

By FLOYD NORRIS

AMERICAN inflation, which has seemed to some conservative economists to be an impending threat ever since the Federal Reserve began to buy large quantities of government securities, appears to be falling to levels lower than any seen in recent years. There are similar declines in many European countries.