Annual wage growth (click here) hit a nine-year high in the US last month as the economy created more jobs than expected.
Average hourly earnings rose by 0.4% in August, pushing the annual rate of increase to 2.9% - the fastest pace since June 2009.
Hiring in the construction sector and in professional services helped the economy to add 201,000 jobs last month....
Annual inflation rate (click here) in the United States fell to 1.9 percent in December of 2018 from 2.2 percent in November, matching market expectations. It is the lowest inflation rate since August of 2017, mainly due to a decline in gasoline cost. On a monthly basis, consumer prices edged down 0.1 percent after a flat reading in the previous month and also in line with forecasts. It is the first monthly decrease in consumer prices in nine months, due to a 7.5 percent slump in gasoline prices. Inflation Rate in the United States averaged 3.27 percent from 1914 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 23.70 percent in June of 1920 and a record low of -15.80 percent in June of 1921.
The FED has been doing backflips to try to stem the inflation rate.
October 11, 2018
By Jeff Kearns
A gauge of underlying U.S. inflation (click here) was below estimates in September as used-car costs fell and housing rents cooled, signaling that price gains may remain close to where Federal Reserve policy makers want them amid an outlook for continued gradual interest-rate hikes.
Excluding volatile food and energy costs, the core consumer price index rose 2.2 percent in September from a year earlier, the same pace as in August and less than the 2.3 percent median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, a Labor Department report showed Thursday. The broader CPI slowed to a 2.3 percent annual gain, the least since February, compared with forecasts for 2.4 percent.
The inflation figures partly reflect a 3 percent monthly decline in prices for used cars and trucks, the biggest drop in 15 years. While the dollar and 10-year Treasury yields initially fell after the report, Fed officials will have two more months of price figures in hand before their December meeting at which they’re projected to raise interest rates for a fourth time this year amid solid economic growth and consumer spending, boosted by tax cuts....
By Jeff Kearns
A gauge of underlying U.S. inflation (click here) was below estimates in September as used-car costs fell and housing rents cooled, signaling that price gains may remain close to where Federal Reserve policy makers want them amid an outlook for continued gradual interest-rate hikes.
Excluding volatile food and energy costs, the core consumer price index rose 2.2 percent in September from a year earlier, the same pace as in August and less than the 2.3 percent median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, a Labor Department report showed Thursday. The broader CPI slowed to a 2.3 percent annual gain, the least since February, compared with forecasts for 2.4 percent.
The inflation figures partly reflect a 3 percent monthly decline in prices for used cars and trucks, the biggest drop in 15 years. While the dollar and 10-year Treasury yields initially fell after the report, Fed officials will have two more months of price figures in hand before their December meeting at which they’re projected to raise interest rates for a fourth time this year amid solid economic growth and consumer spending, boosted by tax cuts....
