The consumer price index, which measures a broad basket of common goods and services, rose 0.5% in January, which translated to an annual gain of 6.4%. The increase was more than economists had forecasted and only a slight slowdown from 6.5% in December.
While the annual pace of inflation has cooled from a peak of 9.1% in the summer of 2022, the pace of increase remains more than three times as fast as was typical before the pandemic.
And prices for a variety of goods and services, such as apparel, groceries, hotel rooms and rent, continued to climb considerably. This was true even after stripping out volatile food and fuel costs.
The data underlined that while the Federal Reserve has been receiving position news that inflation is no longer accelerating relentlessly, it could be a long road back to the 2% annual price gains that used to be normal.
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Bautis Financial Advisor Commentary: February 14, 2023