April Inflation Report Cinches Fed’s Half-Point Rate Rise Path

Another strong inflation reading in April is likely to keep pressure on the Federal Reserve to continue raising rates in half-percentage-point increments at the central bank’s next two policy meetings and possibly beyond that.

The rapid pace of U.S. inflation stayed strong last month, offering little reassurance to the Fed even though the year-over-year rate of growth slowed. On a monthly basis, the consumer-price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in April, according to a Labor Department report on Wednesday. Inflation rose 8.3% from a year earlier, down from the annual increase of 8.5% in March.