By Casey Harper | The Center Square
(Worthy News) – Consumer prices rose again last month after dipping in June, according to newly released federal inflation data.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday released its Consumer Price Index, a key marker of inflation, which showed that consumer prices rose 0.2% in July, part of a 2.9% increase over the past 12 months.
The data is the latest step in Americans’ struggle with higher costs. Prices have risen more than 20% since President Joe Biden took office.
Inflation has slowed significantly since its peak increase earlier in the Biden-Harris administration, but prices still remain elevated.
The latest CPI increase comes after a 0.1% decrease in June. BLS said that shelter cost increases accounted for 90% of the increase.
The data, which is being closely watched by economists and business leaders, comes out just a few days after the stock market sunk over fears of a U.S. recession.
The data will have an influence over whether the Federal Reserve can stop raising interest rates and begin looking to cut them, something always welcomed by the market.
“Core CPI inflation (which excludes volatile food and energy) was moderate for the third straight month in a row in July,” Jason Furman, a Harvard professor and former economic advisor for the Obama administration, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The Federal Reserve is expected to hold its next meeting Sept. 17-18. Whether inflation has cooled off enough for rate cuts remains to be seen.
However, some experts were optimistic.
“The Fed has a green light to cut rates in September,” Jesse Cohen, a Global Markets Analyst for Investing.com, wrote on X after the data’s release.
The CPI data comes just one day after the BLS Producer Price Index data released Tuesday showed a 01.% increase, comprising a 2.2% rise over the previous 12 months.
As The Center Square previously reported, some goods saw a decrease in costs while others saw increases that far outpaced the average. For example, in the previous 12 months, roasted coffee prices rose 9.1% while dairy product prices increased 9.4%, according to BLS.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest Stories from Worthy News
A massive barrage of Israeli airstrikes hit Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon just after the terrorist group’s leader declared that two days of intense hybrid bombings, including the detonation of pagers and walkie-talkies targeting Hezbollah forces, amounted to a declaration of war.
Facing relentless violence against their communities by Islamic jihadist terror groups, 16.2 million Christians in sub-Saharan Africa have now been forced to flee their homes and live in poverty-stricken Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps, the Christian Post (CP) reports.
A Pakistani court has sentenced Shagufta Kiran, a Christian mother of four, to death for “committing blasphemy against Islam,” a senior Christian advocacy activist told Worthy News Thursday.
Amid Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has reiterated that the kingdom would not recognize Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state, the Times of Israel reports. The Crown Prince made his remarks during an annual speech to the advisory Shura Council on Wednesday (September 18).
Taiwanese company Gold Apollo says that the pager model allegedly used by Hezbollah members that simultaneously exploded and killed numerous people, mainly in Lebanon, was made by its Hungarian partner.