Share

US consumer prices rise modestly, but shelter costs firming

Meanwhile, the annual rate of growth in core consumer prices came in at 1.8 percent, unchanged from the previous month.

Advertisement

The 50% rise in core inflation to 1.2% shows that when stripping out the impact of lowered energy prices, the UK is on a clear upward trajectory which will both reassure and worry the Bank of England in equal measure. But global prices have retreated again in recent weeks.

Signs of an ebb in the disinflationary trend, combined with a tightening labor market and strengthening housing sector could give the Federal Reserve confidence that inflation will eventually rise toward its 2 percent target.

The Federal Reserve is reasonably pleased with employment and somewhat comfortable with growth but there are serious questions about inflation.

The inflation outlook is still too weak to merit raising interest rates this year, Samuel Tombs, a senior UK economist at Capital Economics, said.

“Therefore, interest rates will need to be increased well before inflation hits our 2pc target”.

Energy costs edged up 0.1 percent and are 14.8 percent below the level a year ago.

On the other hand, a decrease was recorded in the index of clothing & footwear of 0.2 percent. A separate report indicated the cost of imported goods fell 0.9 percent last month.

Excluding food and fuel, the so-called core index climbed 0.1 percent in July following a 0.2 percent increase the prior month.

Oil prices began to fall sharply in the middle of past year causing gasoline prices to plummet.

A year later, gasoline costs may be stabilizing, peaking for the summer in mid-July at $2.92 for a gallon of regular and declining modestly since then, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. However, airline fares fell 5.6 percent, the largest decline since December 1995.

In July, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) ticked higher for the sixth consecutive month, but only by 0.1% on the headline CPI reading.

Stronger demand attributed to the Holy Month of Ramadan may have played a factor in pushing prices higher.

Advertisement

The food and non-alcoholic beverages index increased by 0.1% between June 2015 and July 2015.

Wall Street