CPI report released: Here’s why inflation ticked higher in August

The BLS refers to a variety of sources to calculate CPI, including the prices of goods and services from about 23,000 retail and service establishments throughout the U.S. It also collects is axiory truly a reliable brokerage data from about 50,000 landlords and tenants to determine the changes in the price of rent. Generally, they prefer the PCE inflation metric, which is released later on August 31.

Therefore, bot activity that doesn’t conform to BLS usage policy is prohibited. Though the CPI is widely used as a tool to evaluate the overall health of the economy, how to buy star atlas it has limitations in what it reports and who it represents. On the other hand, these additional expenses may burden households and make companies less profitable.

Consumer Price Index and Inflation rate

We are likely well past peak inflation at this point, but the Fed is still fine-tuning interest rates with the goal of promptly returning inflation to its 2% target. The upcoming CPI report will help signal if another 2023 rate hike is likely. Here, the Fed is reasonably confident that shelter costs should see some disinflation.

  • Information about food and energy price increases are both summarized in the beginning of the report, since these two categories directly impact consumers.
  • If Thursday’s report is worse than expected, the prospect of another “jumbo” 0.75 percentage point interest rate increase in December is more likely.
  • This notion is also widely attributable to individuals with varying degrees of income.
  • For the November FOMC meeting, the market still slightly leans toward the scenario of interest rates staying put, with a 53% probability of a hold vs. a 47% chance of a rate hike.

Initially, it was calculated by contrasting a market basket of goods from two periods – effectively operating as a cost of goods index (COGI). Yet, under the auspices of the US Congress, the CPI eventually developed into a cost of living index (COLI). In addition, as time passed methodological changes occurred which often resulted in a lower CPI.

What Is the Latest CPI Inflation Reading?

Boston Fed President Susan Collins said in an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday that she was leaning toward a quarter-point hike at the next meeting. “The hope is that basically we are now in a position where you could envision a soft landing. That requires the Fed to not only stop raising rates but ease up sooner and that doesn’t seem to be where they’re at,” said Swonk. It rose slightly in July, with consumer prices ticking up 3.3% as compared to the previous year, but far below the four-decade high of 7% in June 2022, according to the Commerce Department.

Although Kiphut, a fire chief, says his 3% annual raise may finally be matching inflation, “I never caught up to that 9%” rise in prices last summer. Outsourced Chief Investment Officer service to institutional investors. He has previously served as Chief Investment Officer at Moola and FutureAdvisor, both are consumer investment startups that were subsequently acquired by S&P 500 firms. He has published two books and is a CFA Charterholder and educated at Oxford and Northwestern. AllianceBernstein doesn’t expect the inflation rate to fall to the Fed’s target of 2% this year or even early next year. A long-time financial journalist, Dan is a veteran of SmartMoney, MarketWatch, CBS MoneyWatch, InvestorPlace and DailyFinance.

How The Consumer Price Index (CPI) Measures Inflation

The CPI also includes substitution bias, which means it can overstate how much the cost of living has changed. For example, if the CPI captures a large increase in the price of an item, it doesn’t take into account people substituting that item for a cheaper one. Not taking this into account wrongly assumes that people continue to buy the more expensive item and experience a higher inflation rate than what they’re actually enduring.

Breaking Down the Monthly CPI Report

Economists at Bank of America expect a 5.9% jump in energy prices to fuel a 0.6% overall increase. They point to data from AAA showing retail gasoline prices jumping by 6.6% month over month in August. This increase reflects a rise in crude-oil prices driven by supply concerns.

The steady 6.6% year-over-year rise of core inflation is still a pressing concern. Core inflation is a broad measure of all consumer prices, except food and gas, which tend to be more volatile. The markets are currently reasonably comfortable that the Fed will start to ease up on rate hikes as 2022 comes to an end, but the Fed hasn’t seen the positive data it is looking for yet. It appears that, on inflation, either the markets are being too optimistic or the Fed may be being too cautious.

That said, home prices nationally have rebounded a little in recent months, so the Fed has expressed concern that if shelter costs start to rebound, that may justify higher interest rates. Aside from the overall level of inflation, the Fed will be particularly interested in inflation for services. Services are turtle trading rules made up of a range of categories such as medical care and financial services. Their concern is services prices have continued to rise driven, in part, by rising wages, which are a key cost in delivering most services. As wages growth is dropping back in recent months, services prices might moderate, too.

We’ll receive Consumer Price Index data for August 2023 on Wednesday, after broadly encouraging data for the prior two months. Yet with the economy remaining stronger than most had expected, investors and the Federal Reserve will likely have to wait a while before inflation returns to acceptable long-term levels. As a result, the labor market strengthened and returned to pre-pandemic rates by March 2022; however, this stimulus has resulted in the highest CPI calculations in decades.

Unpacking The September CPI: What’s Next For Rates And Markets For 2022 And 2023

The consumer price index (CPI) helps answer this question, as it measures inflation, the economic phenomenon that slowly erodes the purchasing power of your hard-earned dollars. This notion is also widely attributable to individuals with varying degrees of income. For example, lower-income individuals who contribute more gross income towards necessities of shelter and food will skew differently than households with larger disposable income.

Additionally, the release of wholesale inflation data (PPI) on August 11 will be informative. A lot of the large price spikes from 2022 have rolled off of the CPI series. So, reducing inflation, especially core inflation, further in the second half of 2023 may be slower going. It accounts for why they plan to maintain interest rates at relatively high levels into 2024. For the November FOMC meeting, the market still slightly leans toward the scenario of interest rates staying put, with a 53% probability of a hold vs. a 47% chance of a rate hike. Market-implied probabilities, gauged through Fed futures prices, suggest a substantial 93% likelihood of the fed funds rate remaining stable within the range of 5.25% to 5.5%, according to CME Group.

Everyday items, such as meat, vegetables, cleaning supplies and even clothing are tracked. The CPI Index is an inflation indicator closely watched by policymakers and financial markets. A related CPI measure is used to calculate cost-of-living adjustments for federal benefit payments. Economists expect another key metric — the personal consumption expenditure deflator — could show core inflation slowing even below the Fed’s forecast of 3.5% by Dec. 31. Some economists who expect a recession predict rate cuts before year-end, as the markets expect. Wilmington Trust chief economist Luke Tilley said a 12% decline in gasoline prices in December and other decreases in energy prices — for expenses like home heating — helped drive inflation lower.

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