Inflation in the United States gives the Federal Reserve a break. Prices increased 3% in June, which is their lowest level since before the pandemic after chaining a consecutive year of falls, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Specifically, the US CPI has fallen for twelve consecutive months since, in June 2022, it broke its record for the last forty years by standing at 9.1%.
The interest rate hikes approved since then by the Federal Reserve, as well as lower energy prices, have allowed the inflation rate in the United States to now stand at pre-pandemic levels and at its lowest rate in two anos In monthly terms, consumer prices rose two tenths compared to the month of May.
Precisely, energy prices have fallen 16.7% in one year according to the BLS, while food rose 5.7% in that time. The annual rate of underlying inflation, which measures the rise in prices without counting energy or food, stands at 4.8%. In monthly terms, energy prices rose six tenths and food prices only one tenth. The underlying rise was two tenths, the lowest since August 2021.
The significant drop in inflation will be one of the data to be taken into account by the Federal Reserve, which in two weeks begins a new meeting of its Open Market Committee to decide on interest rates. Although rates were not raised at their previous meeting, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell detected that a new hike was expected this next time to prevent the economy from overheating. The labor market continues to be strong, and in June 209,000 net jobs were cut, while the unemployment rate fell one tenth to 3.6%
