November’s consumer price index (CPI) and real earnings reports show some decent results.
The latest statistics show inflation cooled slightly in November regarding the all-items index, rising 2.7% for the past 12 months ending in November.
Items, excluding food and energy, increased by 2.6%.
It’s hard to dissect these reports, though, because the Bureau of Labor Statistics couldn’t gather October data due to the shutdown:
The shutdown made it impossible for Labor Department workers to collect some of the data they normally would have to compile the report on the consumer-price index. Even before the release, economists cautioned that workarounds that the agency used to deal with the collection issues may have biased the November figure downward, causing inflation to be understated.Normally, such a big change in the inflation reading would jolt markets. But investors took the data with a grain of salt. Interest-rate futures that predict Federal Reserve rate cuts moved only slightly. Stocks were moderately higher in morning trading.“I think you largely just put this one to the side,” said Alan Detmeister, an economist at investment bank UBS. “Maybe this report gives a minor downward sign for overall inflation, but the vast, vast majority of this is just noise and should be ignored.”
However, 2.7% is better than the 3% we saw in September!
So, overall, we saw inflation down.
But individual prices went up. I so wish I had October data because this is annoying. I hate copying and pasting instead of comparing the stats:
The index for food increased 2.6 percent over the last year. The index for food at home rose 1.9 percent over the 12 months ending in November. The meats, poultry, fish, and eggs index rose 4.7 percent over the last 12 months. The index for nonalcoholic beverages increased 4.3 percent over the same period and the index for other food at home rose 1.3 percent. The cereals and bakery products index increased 1.9 percent over the 12 months ending in November and the fruits and vegetables index rose 0.1 percent over the year. In contrast, the index for dairy and related products decreased 1.6 percent over the same period.—-The index for energy increased 4.2 percent over the past 12 months. The gasoline index rose 0.9 percent over this 12-month span and the fuel oil index increased 11.3 percent over the same period. The index for electricity increased 6.9 percent over the last 12 months and the index for natural gas rose 9.1 percent.
Other important categories also increased:
On the plus side, real average hourly earnings for all employees went up 0.8% in November. The data showed no change in the average workweek.
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