The UK inflation rate was widely expected to slow in April despite Iran’s continued blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and the resulting disruption to regional oil supplies. However, the scale of the slowdown came as a surprise.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said headline CPI rose 2.8% y/y in April, below expectations for a 3.0% print and down from March’s 3.3% rate. On the month, the index also undershot forecasts by two tenths, rising 0.7%, to match last month’s pace following a 0.4% increase previously.

Annual core CPI, which excludes food and energy, rose 2.5% in April, a tenth below forecasts and more than half a percentage point lower than March’s 3.1% reading. On the month, core prices increased 0.7% after a 0.4% rise previously.

Statisticians said housing and household services made the largest downward contribution to the change in the annual CPI rate. (LiveSquawk – Continue Reading)

The case for a European Central Bank rate hike in June is nearly sealed but the bank is likely to be noncommittal about any further move, looking to temper bets for a quick follow-up step in July, four sources told Reuters.

The ECB kept rates unchanged in April but it debated a hike and signalled that a move on June 11 was likely given persistently high energy costs. (Reuters – Continue Reading)

Brexit’s back. Well, sort of. If it ever really went away. At any rate, an awful lot of ink has been spilled – in Britain, at least – over last weekend’s remarks by a would-be PM that Brexit was “a catastrophic mistake” and the UK’s future lay “back in the EU”.

That reflects, first, just how deep the wounds of Brexit still run. A decade after the referendum unleashed an identity politics so powerful it still dominates UK debate, Britain’s voters remain divided into the two warring tribes of remain versus leave.

The comments by Wes Streeting, the former health secretary who resigned to run for the Labour party leadership and the keys to No 10 Downing St, also look like a fairly smart tactical move in the domestic contest to succeed the embattled Keir Starmer. (Guardian – Continue Reading)

Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who brought his sharp intellect and irrepressible wit to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he led a sweeping overhaul of the financial industry after the Great Recession and advanced gay rights as one of the first openly gay congressmen in history, died May 19 at his home in Ogunquit, Maine. He was 86. (Washington Post – Continue Reading)