2 weeks Ago
The personal consumption expenditures price index showed prices rose just 0.2% from June to July, the Commerce Department said Friday, up a tick from the prior month's 0.1% increase.
Compared with a year earlier, inflation was unchanged at 2.5%. That's just modestly above the Fed's 2% target level.
Still, average prices for such necessities as gas, food and housing remain sharply higher compared with levels before the COVID-19 pandemic. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core inflation rose 0.2% from June to July, the same as in the prior month.
Measured from a year earlier, core prices increased 2.6%, also unchanged from the prior year. Economists closely watch core prices, which typically provide a better read of future inflation trends.
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