Consumer Price Index February 2019

Consumer prices in the United States rose for the first time in four months in February, but the pace of the increase was modest and resulted in the smallest annual increase in nearly two and a half years.

The Ministry of Labor announced Tuesday that its consumer price index had increased 0.2%, thanks to rising food, gasoline and rents costs. The CPI had not changed for three consecutive months.

During the 12-month period ending in February, the CPI rose 1.5%, the smallest gain since September 2016. The CPI rose 1.6% year-over-year in January .

Excluding volatile food and energy components, the CPI edged up 0.1%, the smallest increase since August 2018. The core CPI index had increased 0.2 % for five consecutive months.

In the 12 months to February, the core CPI rose 2.1%. The core CPI had increased 2.2% for three consecutive months on an annual basis. Economists polled by Reuters were forecasting a slight rise of 0.2% in the CPI and core CPI in February.

The Federal Reserve, which aims to inflation of 2%, uses a different measure, the basic index of prices of personal consumption expenditure (PCE), for monetary policy.

The base price index of JCP rose 1.9% in December compared with the previous year, after a similar gain in November. It reached the 2% inflation target set by the US central bank last March for the first time since April 2012.

The slowdown in national and global growth is slowing inflation, even as the job market is tight and wages are rising. Annual wage growth surged 3.4% in February, the largest increase since April 2009, after 3.1% in January.

A New York Fed survey on consumer expectations released on Monday revealed a drop in inflation expectations in February.

In an interview on CBS TV News 60 Minutes, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on Sunday recalled the US central bank's wait-and-see approach to tighter monetary policy this year. Powell said the Fed "was not in a hurry" to change the level of interest rates again.