Crude Oil Drops
Since that briefing, crude oil has dropped to $99.65 a barrel from $112.76, while the five-year TIPS breakeven rate has declined to 2.18 percentage points.
The decline may help validate the FOMC's judgment in the April statement that higher inflation from a rise in commodity prices earlier this year will be "transitory." The Fed's preferred price index, which excludes food and fuel costs, rose 0.9 percent in March from a year earlier, close to a five-decade low of 0.7 percent in December.
U.S. central bankers aim for an inflation rate of about 1.7 percent to 2 percent, based on last month's long-run economic projections of Fed policy makers.