US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell must strike a delicate balance before Congress in the coming week as he aims to reassure Americans the central bank will confront high inflation at the same timeMr Powell will probably endorse recent signals from his colleagues that the Fed remains on track to raise interest rates in March. Still, Russia’s invasion of its neighbour has injected a dose of uncertainty as the conflict contributes to additional price pressures that risk cooling demand.
“We expect Powell to sound vigilant on inflation, but ultimately favour the gradualist approach to rate hikes due to elevated market uncertainty from the Russia-Ukraine crisis. He will not provide an explicit endorsement of a 50-basis-point hike for the March meeting, in our view.” China’s PMI reports for February will be closely scrutinised as a pulse check on the factory to the world, with regional reports shedding further light on the health of manufacturing as supply chain headaches linger.Europe, Middle East, Africa