United States: inflation continues to fall and reaches 7.1 per year

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Inflation continued to fall and moderate more than expected in November in the US, at 7.1% (yoy) from 7.7% in October, thus reaching a minimum since December 2021according to the CPI consumer price index released on Tuesday.

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In July, inflation rose to a record 9.1%, the highest level in four decades, driven by rising fuel costs. The rise in the price index has become a headache for Joe Biden in an election year. However, in the legislative elections last November, the Democratic Party made a good choice, improving its numbers in the Senate.

In monthly terms, consumer prices rose by only a tenth in November, according to this statistic, released a day before the Federal Reserve predictably decides to a further increase in interest rates.

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As BLS recalls, the 7.1% inflation rate it is the lowest since December 2021.

Core inflation, which excludes energy and food prices, stood at 6% year-on-year.

Expenditure on housing, which increased by 0.6%, was what drove the very slight monthly increase, compared to other components that have a heavy impact on inflation, such as energy, whose prices fell by 1. 6 months.

In year-over-year terms the price of energy has slowed down, which now stands at 13.1%.

Gasoline is now 10.1% more expensive than in November 2021, electricity is up 13.7% in one year and gas is up 15.5%.

The Fed’s point of view

The inflation data are released a day before the Federal Reserve concludes its December monetary meeting, after which it should approve a new rate hike, currently around 4%.

However, this increase is expected not to be as large as the previous ones, which reached three quarters of a point.

On Nov. 30, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell ventured that central bank rate hikes They will slow down “as soon as December”, thus hinting the next increase will be 0.5 points instead of 0.75 like those that have been approved in recent months.

Powell said however that inflation remains high and therefore the official interest rate is expected to stay higher for longer than expected.

The official interest rate is currently between 3.75 and 4%.

When the Fed announced its fourth consecutive 0.75-point hike last November, Powell believed there was still room to bring inflation back to its 2% target without triggering a recession.

In light of the latest unemployment data, the Fed’s tight monetary policy is not yet having a major impact on the labor market.

And is that unemployment in the United States did not register changes in November and the rate remained at 3.7%, 6 million people.

263,000 new jobs were created that month, 2,000 more than in October.

EFE extension

Source: Clarin

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