The Consumer Price Index increased by 10.1% in the year to March 2023, down from 10.4% in February. But higher than the forecast of 9.8%.

Several Asian stock markets dipped on Wednesday as uncertainty over the course of US monetary policy outweighed excitement about China's economic revival, with attention now shifting to a flurry of Federal Reserve data this week.

The Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 and Shanghai Composite indices in China declined 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively, after an early lift from better-than-expected first-quarter GDP statistics on Tuesday looked to have worn off.

While the statistics suggested that the Chinese economy was on the mend, indicators of ongoing weakness in the manufacturing sector suggested an uneven recovery, despite the easing of anti-COVID measures earlier this year.

In the UK, the FTSE 100 has now dropped following the release of inflation statistics.

Official numbers show that UK inflation fell in March, although not by as much as City analysts had hoped, and that it remains stubbornly in the double digits.

According to the Office for National Statistics, the Consumer Prices Index increased by 10.1% in the year to March 2023, down from 10.4% in February.

CPI increased by 0.8% month on month in March 2023, compared to 1.1% in March 2022.

The Consumer Price Index, which includes owner-occupier housing prices (CPIH), increased by 8.9% in the year to March, down from 9.2% in February.

CPIH increased by 0.7% month on month in March 2023, compared to 0.9% in March 2022.

The numbers are important for the Bank of England as it considers its latest monetary policy move, with a 25 basis point increase in interest rates now projected at the Monetary Policy Committee's next meeting.

The Eurozone is set to release its inflation data later in the session at 10:00 GMT.

Over in the US, Netflix released its first-quarter results which led shares to fall as the streaming platform failed to attract as many new members as planned during the first quarter.

During the period, the corporation added 1.75 million new members, significantly less than the 2.3 million predicted.

(investing.com, reuters.com)