The Wall Street Journal reports that “US inflation accelerated in August due to a jump in gasoline costs, but underlying price pressures were likely mild enough to keep the Federal Reserve on track to hold interest rates steady next week.
“The consumer-price index, a measure of goods and services prices across the U.S. economy, rose 0.6% in August from the prior month, a faster pace than in July as gasoline prices jumped, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.”
The story goes on: “The 12-month core inflation rate eased to less than 5% earlier this summer from a recent high of 6.6% in September 2022 … Food prices, meanwhile, rose 0.2% in August on a monthly basis, the same pace as in July.”
The Journal notes that “annualized readings of the past few months of data show an even more pronounced slowdown in core inflation. Economists view core inflation as a better predictor of future inflation than the overall rate.”
KC’s View:
More and more the evidence seems to be that the Fed is going to stick the landing when it comes to managing the economy. If there’s going to be a recession, it is going to be short and shallow.
There remain a lot of people out there who are in economic distress, and there are lots of reasons to be concerned about our long-term financial stability and viability. Gotta take wins where we can get them, though.
The post Inflation Up Slightly In August, & Food Prices Up Even Less appeared first on MNB.
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