WASHINGTON, April 19 Reuters Finance chiefs from economies large and small are scrambling to keep pace with the Federal Reserve39;s rapid resetting of ratecut expectations as U.S. inflation data roils markets from London to Brazil.

All insist they are setting policy independently of the Fed and basing it on local conditions. But those conditions are now being buffeted by a sudden likelihood of U.S. interest rates staying higher for longer than had been expected as the year began after a run of hotterthanexpected inflation data.

It39;s an unexpected turn that has supercharged the U.S. dollar, stressing other currencies in return and raising the prospect of currency intervention in Asia. It has also forced Latin American central bankers to tailor their ratecut plans, and even left officials in developed countries wondering whether new constraints on their own easing plans may emerge.

When the March U.S. inflation data scare came, there was a drastic reversal of expectations, and this changed the mood significantly regarding how economic variables will behave worldwide, Brazil39;s Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said in a press conference in Washington on Thursday on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings.

Everything else depends somewhat on this.

The dollar39;s 4.75 appreciation against a basket of currencies this year is creating headaches in many quarters of the globe, but its gains of 9.6 against Japan39;s yen and 6.5…