US consumer inflation relaxed to 7.7 percent over past 12 months

DORAL, FL – US consumer inflation decreased to 7.7% in the last two months, according to a report from the AP.

Consumer inflation got to 7.7% in October from a year earlier and 0.4% from September, said the government on Thursday, while adding that the year-over-year increase, down from 8.2% in September, was “the smallest rise since January”.”

Leaving out volatile food and energy prices, “core? inflation, says the media report, rose 6.3% in the past 12 months and 0.3% from September.

The products that contributed to this positive scenario from September to October were used car prices, which lowered for a fourth straight month; and clothing and medical care. Food price increases slowed but energy prices rebounded in October after declines in August and September.

“We expect this to mark the start of a much longer disinflationary trend that we think will convince the Fed to halt its (hikes) early next year,” said Paul Ashworth, chief North American economist at Capital Economics, a consulting firm, to the AP. “With supply shortages normalizing, deflationary pressure is now finally showing up.”

Regarding interest rates, the projection is that the Federal Reserve will probably continue increasing them, although it is believed, according to data released Thursday, that the Fed could at least slow its rate hikes. This raises fears of a recession by next year since in 2022 alone, interest rate has been raised six times.

Thursday’s data suggest that the Fed will lift rates by a half-percentage point at its next meeting in December, economists said, a step down from the string of three-quarter point hikes this year.

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