Economy

Inflation Still Tame in CPI Reading

The U.S. Department of Labor has been showing that some deflationary pressure may be going away. Consumer inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), posted a gain of 0.3% in the month of June. Bloomberg was calling for a gain of 0.3% on the headline inflation reading.

Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, rose by 0.2%. That matched the 0.2% expected by Bloomberg.

Where inflation pressure gets tricky to analyze is on the year-over-year comparison. The headline CPI was up only 0.1% from a year ago, but if you back out food and energy, that year-over-year change was up 1.8%.

One of the key drivers in June was that gasoline prices at the pump were up by 3.4% in June — and that was after a gain of just over 10% in May. Gas prices were down just over 23% year over year. Whether that recent tick up in the price is sustainable and will remain high ahead is another question, since oil prices fell from $60 at the end of June to almost $50 of late.

Food prices were up 0.3% in June, but that avian flu sent egg prices up over 18% in June.

How does all of this play out in the grand scheme of things? Note that inflation remains well under the Federal Reserve’s 2.0% to 2.5% mandate. Still, Fed Chair Yellen and the Fed presidents are likely to hike interest rates later this year, as long as Greece and China do not sink the ship.

ALSO READ: Why the Fed May Be Losing Its Window to Raise Interest Rates

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