CPI report

US inflation was firmer than expected in August, likely keeping the Federal Reserve on track for a third-straight 75 basis-point interest-rate hike.

Inflation did not ease as expected in August, with an 8.3 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index showing that the squeeze on consumers remains acute.

The global economy is slowing sharply, and threats remain to the American recovery if European sanctions force millions of barrels of Russian oil off the global market in the months to come. The National Federation of Independent Business reported on Tuesday that its Small Business Optimism Index rose in August as inflation anxiety eased, continuing a rebound from its depths earlier this year. [have](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/10/business/economy/may-2022-cpi-inflation.html) [repeatedly](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/07/13/business/cpi-report-inflation) [predicted](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/10/business/economy/inflation-cpi-january-2022.html)that inflation was about to decelerate only to have those expectations scuppered. Biden and his party, as Democrats seek to retain control of the House and Senate. Biden has claimed progress in the fight against inflation, including with the signing last month of an energy, health care and tax bill that Democrats called the Inflation Reduction Act. “And then of course all of this is further exacerbated by what’s going on with the war in the Ukraine.” That could be poised to continue, because those prices are closely linked to wages, which have been climbing notably as a result of a strong job market with low unemployment and worker shortages that span many fields. Last Thursday, India also [banned exports](https://www.wsj.com/articles/indias-rice-export-ban-will-further-strain-global-food-supplies-11662722548) of one kind of rice and put a tax on others, in an effort to shore up supplies and fight domestic inflation. After peaking at $5.02 in June, gasoline prices have dropped for 91 straight days, and the national average stood at just over $3.70 a gallon on Tuesday, data from AAA show. A bout of bird flu earlier this year made chickens and eggs scarce, driving up the prices of both. Stock prices swooned as Wall Street digested the possibility that the Fed might need to be even more aggressive in constraining the economy in order to wrangle an inflation problem that is worse than anything America has faced since the 1980s. Food prices in August were up 11.4 percent from the same month a year ago.

August inflation data arrives little over a week before Federal Reserve decides rate increase.

The Fed is performing a "delicate balancing act," said Scott Schuh, an economics professor at the University of West Virginia. But other indicators suggest the U.S. Prices rose broadly outside of the energy sector. In August, the median of consumer responses showed that they expect inflation to fall to 5.7% in one year and 2.8% in three years, a New York Federal Reserve survey into an economic downturn and putting millions out of work. The national average price for a gallon of gas stood at $3.72 on Monday, having fallen well below a peak of $5.01 in mid-June, according to But the approach risks tipping the U.S. U.S. The Fed has instituted a series of aggressive interest rate hikes in recent months as it tries to slash price increases by slowing the economy and choking off demand. On a monthly basis, the consumer price index rose 0.1% in August, inching upward from the flat month-to-month movement in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Measures of the consumer prices for shelter, new vehicles and apparel all rose at a faster rate in August than they had over the month prior. The consumer price index, or CPI, rose 8.3% over the past year in August, a slight slowdown from 8.5% in July, according to the bureau.

The consumer price index for August was expected to decrease 0.1% from the previous month and increase 8% from a year ago, according to Dow Jones.

Within the jump in food costs, bread prices rose 2.2% on the month and are up 16.2% from a year ago. To combat the broad surge in the cost of living, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates four times this year for a total of 2.25 percentage points. The economy has broadly struggled in 2022 after posting its best year since 1984 last year, and inflation has played a major role. However, they remained down 2.8% from a year ago. Specifically, policymakers are concerned about a huge gap between job openings and available workers as labor force participation is stuck below its pre-pandemic levels. That is the most stubborn of everything the Fed is fighting at this point." Excluding volatile food and energy costs, CPI rose 0.6% from July and 6.3% from the same month in 2021. That has resulted in rising wages that have in turn put pressure on prices. "Today's CPI reading is a stark reminder of the long road we have until inflation is back down to earth," said Mike Loewengart, head of model portfolio construction for Morgan Stanley's Global Investment Office. Markets had been widely expecting the Fed to enact a 0.75 percentage point rate increase at its meeting next week. The respective year-over-year forecasts were for 8% and 6% gains. "It's very clear to them that it's food, it's transportation and it's rent.

It's becoming a game of Whac-A-Mole for the Federal Reserve to keep consumer prices from shooting up. That might mean an aggressive-for-longer stance on ...

CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of [Digital Currency Group](https://dcg.co/), which invests in [cryptocurrencies](https://dcg.co/#digital-assets-portfolio) and blockchain [startups](https://dcg.co/portfolio/). Futures trading in federal funds now reflects a minor probability of the Fed raising rates by 100 basis points next week and suggests the rate-hike cycle peaking at 4.25% in March 2023. Ahead of the data, interest-rate traders expected the Fed to hike borrowing costs by 75 basis points (0.75 percentage point) at the U.S. The U.S. Prices for risky assets tumbled after the CPI release, with bitcoin falling from $22,700 to nearly $21,000. The market now has to bear that adjustment." Consumer Price Index](https://in.investing.com/economic-calendar/cpi-733), which showed the 12-month inflation rate slowed to 8.3% in August from 8.5% the prior month – a tiny decrease that is likely to keep investors worried about sticky price pressures. [strict set of editorial policies](/ethics/). The CPI report had been expected to slow to 8.1%. The Federal Reserve’s target for inflation is 2% annually. [Turek tweeted](https://twitter.com/jturek18/status/1569683544661704706) after the CPI release: "I think the pricing assumption now has to be 75, 75, 50, 25. The path forward for risk assets, including cryptocurrencies, may have become more challenging.

US inflation ticked back up in August, despite plunging gas prices, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Tuesday.

A prolonged period of historic rate hikes could do serious damage to the US economy. Almost all other categories saw price increases, including shelter, which increased 0.7% in August and is up 6.2% year-on-year, the largest increase since 1991. The last time the headline CPI rate declined in consecutive months was the first part of 2020. The month-on-month gain of 0.6% was double what economists had expected. Economists had projected that inflation would fall from July to August by 0.1%, after holding steady at 0% growth from June to July. On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 0.1% from July, according to the Consumer Price Index, which measures a basket of consumer goods and services.