On February 14th, Lawrence Werther, Chief US Economist at Daiwa Capital Markets, stated that the CPI report for January, which slowed down inflation, and better than expected employment data this week provide sufficient reasons for the Federal Reserve to maintain interest rates unchanged at its March policy meeting. In terms of January inflation data, the overall and core inflation growth rates were 2.4% and 2.5% year-on-year, respectively, just reaching the minimum threshold for maintaining a patient policy - that is, the inflation rate remains above 2%. In addition, core service inflation (excluding housing), which was once the focus of policy makers' attention, jumped 0.6% month on month. This change is likely to attract the attention of regional Federal Reserve chairmen who are cautious about price increases.