A holiday gift for consumers: Inflation falls for the first time since April 2020
CBSN
Inflation fell in November for the first time since early 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was slamming the U.S. economy. The decline signals that the Federal Reserve's flurry of interest rate hikes is continuing to put pressure on inflation, which hit a 40-year high last year.
The Fed's preferred measure of inflation, personal consumption expenditures (PCE), showed that consumer prices slid 0.1% last month from October, the Commerce Department said on Friday. That marks the first month-over-month drop since April 2020, while the year-over-year increase — up 2.6% from November 2022 — was less than economists had forecast.
"The broad-based disinflation now moving through the economy should result in further relief in overall inflation," Joe Brusuelas, U.S. chief economist with RSM, said in a report.