+6.4% in Jan.
+5.6% excluding
food and energy
+6.4%
in Jan.
+5.6%
excluding
food and
energy
+6.4%
in Jan.
+5.6%
excluding
food and
energy
Inflation cooled very slightly on an annual basis for a seventh straight month in January, continuing a deceleration that has come as supply chains have healed and prices for goods have moderated, but the details of the report offered reasons for concern.Consumer Price Index data released on Tuesday showed that price increases picked up briskly on a monthly basis. That was true across both key measures: the one that includes gas and groceries, and a “core” index that strips out those products because of their month-to-month volatility to get a better sense of the underlying inflation trend.The price index was up 6.4 percent in January compared with a year earlier. That was a slight slowing from 6.5 percent in December, and down notably from a peak of about 9 percent last summer. But compared with the previous month, prices climbed 0.4 percent after stripping out groceries and fuel — a rapid pace of growth that matched the increase in December.The overall report shows that while the Federal Reserve has been receiving positive news on inflation — price increases are no longer relentlessly accelerating, the way they did for much of 2021 and the first half of 2022 — it could be a long and bumpy road back to the 2 percent annual inflation gains that used to be normal.“We’re certainly down from the peak of inflation pressures last year, but we’re lingering at an elevated rate,” said Laura Rosner-Warburton, senior economist at MacroPolicy Perspectives. “The road back to 2 percent is going to take some time.”Pricier hotels, car insurance and vehicle repairs and a continued rapid increase in rental costs are among the factors that helped to keep inflation figures high in January. Goods, including used cars and clothing for women, dropped in price on a monthly basis, but even the slowdown in some physical products was less pronounced than it had been. Price increases for overall apparel accelerated, for instance.The fresh data underline that price pressures remain stubborn and inflation may not fade quickly and smoothly, something Fed officials have repeatedly warned about.“There has been an expectation that it will go away quickly and painlessly — and I don’t think that’s at all guaranteed,” Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, said at an e …
