U.S Inflation Eased on Lower Airfares

U.S inflation measured by consumer price index slowed more than expected in February. to 2.8%. The consumer price index increased 0.2% after a sharp 0.5% advance in January, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Costs pressures eased for the first time in 5-month, amidst President Donald Trump tariffs policy, which threatens to increase prices for Americans.

Egg prices, which have soared because an ongoing bout of avian flu is ravaging the industry, rose 10.4% for the month, a cooler reading than the 15.2% increase logged in January.

Still, egg prices remain high, up 58.8% from a year ago. Food and fuel are two of the most frequent ways that consumers encounter inflation, and those prices can fluctuate wildly on a month-by-month basis.

That’s due to factors such as weather, war, disease, supply chain snarls, spikes in demand or other temporary shocks. February’s core CPI came in better than expected as well, rising 0.2% for the month (from 0.4% in January) and slowing to 3.1% annually from 3.2%.

“We’ve had a surprisingly cool set of February US consumer price inflation prints of 0.2% month-on-month for both headline and core versus consensus predictions of 0.3%.

“This pulls the annual rate of headline inflation down to 2.8% from 3% while core inflation dips to 3.1% from 3.3%”, ING says in a commentary note.

To three decimal places the month on month change in core inflation was 0.227%, which remains above the 0.17% trend that analysts need to average to bring inflation down to the Fed’s 2% year-on-year target, but this is encouraging news for the Federal Reserve. #U.S Inflation Eased on Lower Airfares#

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