by Reuters
Reuters.com
Aug 12 (Reuters) – U.S. consumers’ medium-term inflation expectations eased substantially in July even as their near- and longer-term outlooks for price pressures held steady, although households are increasingly worried about staying current on their debt, a Federal Reserve Bank of New York report showed on Monday.
The median three-year inflation expectation dropped to 2.3% from 2.9% in June to register its lowest reading since the New York Fed launched the monthly Survey of Consumer Expectations in 2013. The one-year and five-year outlooks held steady at 3.0% and 2.8%, respectively.
Fed officials – who’ve been battling high inflation for more than two years – track a range of measures of inflation expectations because they worry that if they begin to drift substantially upward, consumers and businesses will alter their spending behaviors in ways that can make inflation harder to tame.