With inflation in India easing to 3.61% in February and the economy forecast to grow at 6.4% this fiscal year, the weakest in four years, the central bank has room to cut rates further.

Collection of the new auto tariffs would begin on Apr 3. Besides cars, it will also impact light trucks.

He offered few hints on the next rate-hike timing, but said the BOJ did not necessarily need to wait until everything is clear on the impact of US tariffs, in pulling the trigger.

It includes a 500-billion-euro (S$727 billion) fund for infrastructure, and sweeping changes to borrowing rules.

An index measuring consumer confidence compiled by the University of Michigan fell to 57.9 in March, down from 64.7 a month earlier,

Between January and February, the CPI picked up 0.2 per cent, Labor Department data showed, also a cooldown from January’s 0.5 per cent figure.

“There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big – we’re bringing wealth back to America,” he said. “It takes a little time.”

The consumer price index (CPI) declined 0.7 per cent in February from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on March 9, compared with a 0.5 per cent gain in January.

Powell noted, the trade actions Trump took in his first term in the White House, far from being inflationary, caused global growth to slow and actually led the Fed to cut interest rates.

The ISM’s nonmanufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) climbed to 53.5 last month from 52.8 in January. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the services PMI dipping to 52.6.

Easing for the sixth time since June, the ECB lowered its deposit rate to 2.5 per cent in a nod to slowing inflation and faltering growth,