Since the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine at the end of last month, a new round of supply interruption and inflation impact have overwhelmed many economies around the world. This week is one of the most critical central bank super weeks of the year, and the Federal Reserve officially launched a new round of interest rate hikes. According to reports, in the group of twenty (G20), as many as seven central banks held interest rate meetings this week. The Fed is clearly the central bank in the spotlight this week. The monetary policy conference novel coronavirus pneumonia means that the Fed has officially entered the tightening cycle, which is three years from its December 2018 interest rate increase. Although the monetary policies of major central banks still show a differentiation trend, the monetary authorities of some countries or regions raise interest rates in response to the decision of the Federal Reserve. Among them, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Macao monetary authority raised the target interest rate and the discount window interest rate to 0.75% respectively, and the Central Bank of the Gulf States also raised its main interest rate by 25 basis points. For example, the Saudi central bank raised the repurchase and proposed repurchase interest rates to 1.25% and 0.75% respectively, the Central Bank of the UAE raised the benchmark interest rate of its overnight deposit instruments to 0.4%, and the central banks of Kuwait and Bahrain raised the discount interest rate and key policy interest rate to 1.75% and 1.25% respectively. In addition, some central banks under inflationary pressure continued to raise interest rates this week. Hours after the Fed's decision, the monetary policy committee of the Central Bank of Brazil announced that it had raised interest rates to 11.75% for the ninth time in a row, the highest in five years, second only to 12.75% in April 2017, which was almost several times the interest rate level of 2% a year ago, and Brazil's inflation rate of 10.06% was three times the official target. The market has generally raised the peak target of this interest rate increase cycle to 13.75%. The Bank of England is the first developed economy to raise interest rates. Last month, it predicted that the inflation rate would peak at about 7.25% in April, which is four times the central bank's 2% inflation target. However, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine led to drastic changes in the European energy market and cast more variables on the inflation outlook. As a result, the Bank of England had to raise interest rates for the third time in a row on the 17th, taking the lead in raising the interest rate level to the pre epidemic level. In addition, after the Russian Central Bank announced an emergency interest rate increase of 1050 basis points at the end of last month to curb inflation and support the local currency, Friday's statement will also be concerned. In Japan, which is difficult to change its super loose monetary policy in the short term, the recent rise in oil prices has made the price rise exceed its expectations, and the weakness of the exchange rate has also put Japan in a dilemma. Bloomberg economists pointed out that "two factors are changing the dynamics of economic growth and inflation in Japan - the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the extended restrictions due to the epidemic." Therefore, the market remains concerned about the Bank of Japan's assessment and all the guidance it provides. Although accelerating the reduction of stimulus measures is the current choice of many central banks, including the European Central Bank said last week that it would accelerate the reduction of economic stimulus measures, the economic performance of various countries is different, resulting in the incomplete synchronization of monetary policies. Even within the Federal Reserve, although there is a consensus on accelerating the pace of interest rate hikes to curb inflation this year, there are still differences on the specific pace of interest rate hikes. In particular, the rate hike in the second half of this year will depend more on the performance of the US economy and inflation and the impact of external factors. (Xinhua News Agency)