Wow, can you believe it? We’ve already reached the end of 2024! Before we dive into 2025, let’s take a moment to look back over the past year and see how various markets have performed. I hope 2024 has been an incredible year for you! 🙂
### Inflation
This year, inflation continued on its downward path. In the United States, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) dipped from 3.4% to 2.7%. The Core CPI, which excludes prices of food and energy, also saw a decrease, dropping from 3.9% to 3.3%. Though these figures haven’t quite hit the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, progress is being made in the right direction.
Turning to Singapore, their CPI has taken a significant drop from 3.7% down to 1.4%, while the Core CPI reduced from 3.3% to 2.1%.
### Interest Rates
With inflation numbers showing promise, the Federal Reserve felt confident enough to start easing up on interest rates. They began a new cycle of cutting rates with a half-percentage-point reduction back in September. Following that, the rates were trimmed down by another 0.25% in both November and December. At present, the target range for rates stands at 4.25-4.50%.
In alignment with these adjustments, the Fed is eyeing two more potential rate cuts…
