by Ryan McMaken
Mises.org
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest price inflation data, CPI inflation in December accelerated while the month-to month increase hit a multi-month high.
The seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.39 percent, month over month, in December, rising to a ten-month high. Year over year, the CPI rose 2.88 percent in December, not seasonally adjusted. That’s a five-month high.
Much of this was fueled by ongoing and solid increases in the cost of shelter, energy, and services. Shelter, for instance, rose by 4.6 percent, year over year.
This contradicts months of claims from Jerome Powell and other Federal Reserve mouthpieces who have insisted that price inflation was rapidly returning to the Fed’s two-percent price inflation goal. This was key for the Fed’s attempts to justify the FOMC’s jumbo 50-basis-point cut to the federal funds rate in September.