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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Last Week: Key Measures Show Low Inflation in July

by Calculated Risk on 8/26/2015 06:01:00 PM

While I was on vacation, there were several key economic releases. Here is the CPI release ...

Last week the Cleveland Fed released the median CPI and the trimmed-mean CPI this morning:

ccording to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the median Consumer Price Index rose 0.2% (1.8% annualized rate) in July. The 16% trimmed-mean Consumer Price Index also rose 0.2% (1.9% annualized rate) during the month. The median CPI and 16% trimmed-mean CPI are measures of core inflation calculated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland based on data released in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) monthly CPI report.

[Last week], the BLS reported that the seasonally adjusted CPI for all urban consumers rose 0.1% (1.6% annualized rate) in July. The CPI less food and energy also rose 0.1% (1.6% annualized rate) on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Note: The Cleveland Fed has the median CPI details for July here. Motor fuel was down sharply in July.

Inflation Measures Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows the year-over-year change for these four key measures of inflation. On a year-over-year basis, the median CPI rose 2.3%, the trimmed-mean CPI rose 1.7%, and the CPI less food and energy rose 1.8%. Core PCE is for June and increased 1.3% year-over-year.

On a monthly basis, median CPI was at 1.8% annualized, trimmed-mean CPI was at 1.9% annualized, and core CPI was at 1.6% annualized.

On a year-over-year basis these measures suggest inflation remains below the Fed's target of 2% (median CPI is above 2%).

Inflation is still low.