How are rising energy costs affecting core inflation and consumer prices?
Core argument: Non-energy commodity price spikes, particularly nitrogen fertilizer, lead to an estimated 1.5% food price boost this year, contributing 0.1pp to.
Coming into the year, we expected the transition from tariff drag in 2025 to a tax cut boost in 2026 to generate above-potential GDP growth this year. But as Exhibit 8 shows, we now expect the drag on growth from higher oil prices to roughly offset the boost to growth from the 2025 fiscal bill. Reflecting both the impact of higher oil prices and incoming Q1 GDP tracking data, we have lowered our 2026 Q4/Q4 GDP growth forecast by 0.5pp to 2.0% since the war began. For upcoming quarters, our baseline forecast is about ½pp below our estimate of potential growth, and in our adverse or severely adverse scenarios, GDP growth would be ¾-1pp below potential.

