US consumer prices rose by 6.4% in the 12 months to January, marking the slowest inflationary growth since October 2021, although the month-on-month rise was larger than previously, the Labor Department said on Tuesday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th February, 2023) US consumer prices rose by 6.4% in the 12 months to January, marking the slowest inflationary growth since October 2021, although the month-on-month rise was larger than previously, the Labor Department said on Tuesday.
The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, known in short as the CPI, rose by 0.5% last month after a 0.1% decline in December. Core month-on-month CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, was up 0.4% in January from a 0.3% growth in December.
The CPI hit a 40-year high in June when it grew at an annual rate of 9.1%, versus the Fed's inflation target of just 2% per annum. In a bid to control surging prices, the central bank added 450 basis points to interest rates since March via seven rate hikes. Prior to that, interest rates peaked at just 25 basis points, as the central bank slashed them to nearly zero after the global COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. The Fed, which executed four back-to-back jumbo rate hikes of 75 basis points from June through November, imposed a more modest 50-basis point increase in December and a 25-basis point hike in January.
