US inflation ticked up last month as some price pressures remain persistent
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in November from a year earlier, up from a yearly figure of 2.6% in October. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core prices increased 3.3%, the same as in the previous month. Measured month to month, prices climbed 0.3% from October to November, the biggest such increase since April. Core prices also rose 0.3% for a fourth straight month.
Wednesday's inflation figures from the
“It's generally in the ballpark of what the Fed would like to see,” said
Though sharp increases for such items as groceries and hotel rooms increased overall inflation last month, those categories are often volatile. Pride noted that the cost of services, such as rents, car insurance, and airline fares, cooled in November.
Last week, Fed Chair
“We’re not quite there on inflation, but we’re making progress,” Powell said. “We can afford to be a little more cautious.”
With the job market cooling, growth in Americans' paychecks has slowed from a nearly 6% annual pace in 2022 to about 4% now, a rate nearly consistent with inflation at the Fed's 2% target. Powell has said he doesn't think the current job market is a driver of higher prices.
“Things have kind of leveled off,” he said.
Carr's customers, which include the company that makes emblems for
In September, the Fed slashed its benchmark rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, by a sizable half-point. It followed that move with a quarter-point rate cut in November. Those cuts lowered the central bank’s key rate to 4.6%, down from a four-decade high of 5.3%.
Though inflation is now way below its peak of 9.1% in
Grocery prices jumped last month, an uncomfortable reminder for consumers that food prices remain a big drag on households' budgets. Beef prices leapt 3.1% just from October to November and are up 5% from a year earlier.
Egg prices, which have been volatile for more than two years, in part because of outbreaks of bird flu, soared 8.2% just last month. They are nearly 38% higher than a year ago.
Gas prices ticked up 0.6% from October to November, ending a string of declines. Still, gas is down more than 8% from a year earlier. Hotel prices leapt 3.2% from October to November and are 3.7% higher than a year ago.
Used-car prices jumped 2% from October to November; new cars rose 0.6%. Those increases might have been fueled by a surge in demand after Hurricane Helene's destruction of existing cars in places like
But one key category that has been pushing prices up showed welcome signs of cooling in November: Rental prices ticked up just 0.2%, the smallest increase since
Fed officials have made clear that they expect inflation to fluctuate along a bumpy path even as it gradually cools toward their target level. In speeches last week, several of the central bank’s policymakers stressed their belief that with inflation having already fallen so far, it was no longer necessary to keep their benchmark rate quite as high.
Typically, the Fed cuts rates to try to stimulate the economy enough to maximize employment yet not so much as to drive inflation high. But the
But Powell has said that the central bank is seeking to “recalibrate” its rate to a lower setting, one more in line with tamer inflation.
One possible problem to the Fed’s efforts to keep inflation down is Trump’s threat to impose widespread tariffs on
World Emblem, based in
“I wish we didn’t have to deal with it, but if we have to, we’re putting plans together,” he said.
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