{"id":2167,"date":"2026-03-18T19:15:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T19:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=2167"},"modified":"2026-03-18T19:15:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T19:15:02","slug":"fed-meeting-interest-rate-decision-march-live-updates-2026-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=2167","title":{"rendered":"Fed Meeting Live Updates: Interest Rates Hold Steady As Oil Soars"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The Bureau of Labor Statistics published new <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/cpi-inflation-february-consumer-price-index-2026-3\" rel=\"noopener\">consumer price index<\/a> data last Wednesday, showing the inflation rate held steady at 2.4% in February as expected. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, also held steady at 2.5%.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Inflation only up to February 2026\" aria-label=\"Line chart\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-EjrU5\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/EjrU5\/1\/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"469\" data-external=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>However, that report was based on data mainly gathered before the start of the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/food-inflation-oil-prices-fertilizer-farmers-iran-war-shipping-hormuz-2026-3\" rel=\"noopener\">Iran war<\/a>, which could heat up inflation and jeopardize progress toward the 2% goal. Economists expect to see the effects of the oil shock from the Iran war as soon as the next report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The Bureau of Labor Statistics published new <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/cpi-inflation-february-consumer-price-index-2026-3\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"noopener\">consumer price index<\/a> data last Wednesday, showing the inflation rate held steady at 2.4% in February as expected. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, also held steady at 2.5%.<\/p>\n<p>However, that report was based on data mainly gathered before the start of the <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/food-inflation-oil-prices-fertilizer-farmers-iran-war-shipping-hormuz-2026-3\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"noopener\">Iran war<\/a>, which could heat up inflation and jeopardize progress toward the 2% goal. Economists expect to see the effects of the oil shock from the Iran war as soon as the next report.<\/p>\n<p>Oil prices remain elevated as the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed off. Gas prices are up from a month ago, and there are other factors affecting what consumers pay at the pump, such as higher demand in the spring.<\/p>\n<p>Alexandra Wilson-Elizondo, global co-chief investment officer of multi-asset solutions at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said February data &#8220;was collected before the conflict in Iran sent crude oil surging roughly 30%, with natural gas, aluminum, fertilizer, freight rates, and shipping insurance moving higher with it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Strait of Hormuz remains the wildcard, and if disruption is sustained, the inflation improvement embedded in today&#8217;s print could reverse quickly,&#8221; Wilson-Elizondo said in commentary following the CPI report.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>window.allScripts = window.allScripts || []; window.allScripts.push({ type: \"load\", script: \"%3Cscript%20id%3D%22meta-pixel-script%22%20%3E(()%3D%3E%7Bvar%20e%3D%7B69531()%7B!function()%7Bvar%20e%2Ct%2Cr%2Cn%2Co%2Ci%3Bfunction%20a()%7Bwindow.Fenrir%3F.cm%3F.usPrivacyApplies%26%26window.Fenrir%3F.cm%3F.isOptedOutOfAds%3Ffbq(%22dataProcessingOptions%22%2C%5B%22LDU%22%5D%2C0%2C0)%3Afbq(%22dataProcessingOptions%22%2C%5B%5D)%2Cfbq(%22init%22%2C%221988166924554892%22)%2Cfbq(%22track%22%2C%22PageView%22)%7Ddocument.querySelectorAll('iframe%5Bsrc*%3D%22jwplayer%22%5D').length%7C%7C(e%3Dwindow%2Ct%3Ddocument%2Cr%3D%22script%22%2Ce.fbq%7C%7C(n%3De.fbq%3Dfunction()%7Bn.callMethod%3Fn.callMethod.apply(n%2Carguments)%3An.queue.push(arguments)%7D%2Ce._fbq%7C%7C(e._fbq%3Dn)%2Cn.push%3Dn%2Cn.loaded%3D!0%2Cn.version%3D%222.0%22%2Cn.queue%3D%5B%5D%2C(o%3Dt.createElement(r)).async%3D!0%2Co.src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fconnect.facebook.net%2Fen_US%2Ffbevents.js%22%2C(i%3Dt.getElementsByTagName(r)%5B0%5D).parentNode.insertBefore(o%2Ci))%2Cwindow.Fenrir%3F.cm%3F.cmStarted%3Fa()%3AsetTimeout(a%2C1e3))%7D()%7D%7D%2Ct%3D%7B%7D%3Bfunction%20r(n)%7Bvar%20o%3Dt%5Bn%5D%3Bif(void%200!%3D%3Do)return%20o.exports%3Bvar%20i%3Dt%5Bn%5D%3D%7Bexports%3A%7B%7D%7D%3Breturn%20e%5Bn%5D(i%2Ci.exports%2Cr)%2Ci.exports%7Dr.m%3De%2Cr.c%3Dt%2Cr.o%3D(e%2Ct)%3D%3EObject.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(e%2Ct)%2C(()%3D%3E%7Br.S%3D%7B%7D%3Bvar%20e%3D%7B%7D%2Ct%3D%7B%7D%3Br.I%3D(n%2Co)%3D%3E%7Bo%7C%7C(o%3D%5B%5D)%3Bvar%20i%3Dt%5Bn%5D%3Bif(i%7C%7C(i%3Dt%5Bn%5D%3D%7B%7D)%2C!(o.indexOf(i)%3E%3D0))%7Bif(o.push(i)%2Ce%5Bn%5D)return%20e%5Bn%5D%3Br.o(r.S%2Cn)%7C%7C(r.S%5Bn%5D%3D%7B%7D)%3Br.S%5Bn%5D%3Bvar%20a%3D%5B%5D%3Breturn%20a.length%3Fe%5Bn%5D%3DPromise.all(a).then(()%3D%3Ee%5Bn%5D%3D1)%3Ae%5Bn%5D%3D1%7D%7D%7D)()%3Br(69531)%7D)()%3B%3C%2Fscript%3E\" });<\/script><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Bureau of Labor Statistics published new consumer price index data last Wednesday, showing the inflation rate held steady at 2.4% in February as expected. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, also held steady at 2.5%. However, that report was based on data mainly gathered before the start of the Iran war,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56,251,759,204,762,763,265,760,764,766,767,765,761],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-economy","category-federal-reserve","category-finance","category-inflation","category-interest-rates","category-iran","category-jerome-powell","category-jobs","category-kitchen-table-big-bet","category-limited-synd","category-oil","category-trump"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}