by Calculated Risk on 5/13/2013 09:37:00 PM

On inflation from the WSJ: Inflation Continues to Make Itself Scarce

This week will see the release of U.S. producer and consumer price indexes for April. Both will show further deceleration to 0.7% and 1.4% year on year, respectively, according to FactSet. Consumer prices are expanding at their slowest pace since summer 2010, when the Federal Reserve launched "QE2," its second round of bond buying.

It isn't just the U.S. seeing disinflation. Consumer prices in the euro zone rose by just 1.73% year on year in March, the slowest since August 2010. Japan's renewed monetary exertions of recent months haven't yet reversed its outright deflation. Even Chinese inflation has dropped.

Those predicting inflation are still wrong. Actually the key concern with prices is that inflation is too low!

Tuesday economic releases:
• At 7:30 AM ET, NFIB Small Business Optimism Index for April. The consensus is for an increase to 90.5 from 89.5 in March.

• At 11:00 AM, The Q1 2013 Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit will be released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. From the NY Fed: "The Quarterly Report provides an updated snapshot of household trends in borrowing and indebtedness, including data about mortgages, student loans, credit cards, auto loans and delinquencies."