fleury sent this report. the december notes from the us central bank s last meeting showed policymakers are feeling better about inflation. they agreed with investors that interest rates are at or near the peak for this cycle. they also agree it will come down this year. but they offered no clues as to how or when that will happen. to remind viewers, the federal reserve started raising rates in march 2022 to tame inflation. it did so 11 times, taking the benchmark rate to 5.5%. inflation, by the time of the last meeting, had dropped to 3.2% from a peak of 9.1%. meanwhile, new data out on wednesday showed the number ofjob openings in the united states fell to 8.79 million in november. this points to weaker demand for labour but is still well above pre covid levels. that is consistent with the fed s goal. to slow the economy without triggering a nasty recession. the feds first rate setting meeting this year starting january 30. investors are holding their breath is beneficial t
welcome to the programme. we start in the middle east. iran s supreme leader says there ll be a harsh response, after at least 95 people were killed, by two explosions in the southeastern city of kerman. the blasts were near the saheb al zaman mosque, where thousands of people had gathered to mark the anniversary of the death of a senior general, who was killed in a us drone strike in 2020. caroline hawley reports. the roads leading to the cemetery were packed with people who had gone to qasem soleimani. officials say the bombs had been planted in bags and were apparently set off by remote control. whoever did this was clearly aiming to cause mass casualties. the iranian red crescent said their efforts to evacuate the injured were complicated by the size of the crowds. and a first bomb was followed swiftly by a second, more deadly explosion. it comes four years to the day since qasem soleimani was killed himself in an american drone attack while on a visit to iraq. general so
correspondence sent this report. the december note on the us central banks asked meeting showed policymakers are feeling better about inflation. they agreed with investors that interest rates are at or near the peak of the cycle. they also agree it will come down this year. they offered no clues as to how or when that will happen. to remind viewers come at the federal reserve started raising rates in march 2022 to tame inflation. it is so 11 times, taking the benchmark rate to 5.5%. inflation by the time of the last meeting had dropped to 3.2% from a peak of 9.1%. meanwhile, new data out on wednesday showed the number of job openings in the united states fell to 8.79 million in november. this points to weaker demand for labour but is still well above pre covid levels. that is consistent with the fed s goal. to slow the economy without triggering a nasty recession. the feds first ratesetting meeting this year starting january 30. that disappointment is reflected in how us stoc
replace that word with something else, clearly indicating that inflation is the number-one enemy facing the economy right now. you noted in washington post, while highly welcome, the policy pivot by the fed is only a start and will need to be reinforced in the weeks ahead. what kind of reinforcement does the fed need to make? so, the fed has to regain control of the inflationary tif. it has to convince people it understands what is driving inflation and it s willing to do something about it. after all, it s one of its two mandates. so it s critical that the fed move quickly. when you ve mischaracterized something as important as inflation for so long, it s not enough to say whoops, i made a mistake. that s what they said on 30th. they have to do more. they have to do two things in particular. one, explain to us why they made such a big mistake. it s one of the worst inflation calls in the history of the fed. it matters why they made that mistake.