U.S. Core Inflation Unexpectedly Cools on Autos, Drug Prices
Source: Bloomberg
A key measure of underlying U.S. inflation unexpectedly eased in February amid falling prices for autos and prescription drugs, giving the Federal Reserve more room to stick to its plan for being patient on raising interest rates.
Excluding food and energy, the so-called core consumer price index rose 0.1 percent from the prior month and 2.1 percent from a year earlier, according to a Labor Department report Tuesday. Those figures trailed the median estimates of economists. The broader CPI rose 0.2 percent from January, the first increase in four months, though the 1.5 percent annual gain missed projections and was the smallest rise since 2016.
Treasuries rose after the report while the dollar fell, as the data suggest there’s a greater chance that inflation won’t hold up around the Fed’s 2 percent objective -- a development that would discourage policy makers from additional rate increases amid rising risks from weakening global growth.
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The slowdown in overall inflation is giving Americans more spending power. A separate Labor Department report on Tuesday showed that average hourly earnings, adjusted for inflation, rose 1.9 percent in February from a year earlier. That compares with 1.6 percent in the previous month and is the fastest pace since 2015.
Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-core-inflation-unexpectedly-cools-123002029.html
More spending power they say.
Things are moving much to slow best I can tell.
Up 1.5% for the fiscal year = don't get your hopes up on a COLA you can count!
We are going nowhere according to this report.
How are those tariffs working out for you folks?
= new reply since forum marked as read
