Feb 13 Reuters New York Community Bancorp shares fell nearly 4 after inflation data on Tuesday on investor worries that delays to interestrate cuts could worsen the bank39;s woes from its exposure to stressed U.S. commercial real estate CRE sector.

Consumer price index CPI increased 0.3 in January compared to the 0.2 that economists polled by Reuters had forecast, data released by the Labor Department showed.

Investors have been worried that higher borrowing costs and low occupancy rates for office spaces could exacerbate the stress on lenders exposed to potential defaults by borrowers in the CRE sector.

The interestrate sensitive real estate sector is under pressure and some banks39; exposure to CRE is likely prompting some investors to take some risk off the table, said Bankrate senior economic analyst Mark Hamrick.

The KBW Regional Banking index fell 3.3 and has lost around 8.4 so far this year. Shares of other banks, including Western Alliance Bancorp and Comerica, fell nearly 4 each.

Brokerage Morgan Stanley warned of a bumpy path ahead, saying, this inflation acceleration will be one factor delaying the decision to start cutting rates to June this year.

Since posting a quarterly loss due to higher provisions and slashing its dividend on Jan. 31, the market value of New Yorkbased NYCB has dropped by nearly 4 billion.

The steep slide in its shares began to ease last week after the lender named banking veteran and turnaround expert Alessandro DiNello its…