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Friday, February 19, 2016

CPI unchanged in January, Core CPI up 2.2% YoY

by Calculated Risk on 2/19/2016 08:35:00 AM

From the BLS:

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) was unchanged in January on a seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 1.4 percent before seasonal adjustment.

An increase in the index for all items less food and energy offset a decline in the energy index to lead to the seasonally adjusted all items index being unchanged. The energy index fell 2.8 percent as all of its major component indexes declined. The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.3 percent in January. The increase was broad-based, with most of the major components rising, but increases in the indexes for shelter and medical care were the largest contributors. ...

The all items index rose 1.4 percent over the last 12 months, compared to the 0.7-percent 12-month increase for the period ending December. ... The index for all items less food and energy increased 2.2 percent over the last 12 months, a figure that has been gradually rising over the last several months.
emphasis added
I'll post a graph later today after the Cleveland Fed releases the median and trimmed-mean CPI. This was above the consensus forecast of a 0.1% decrease for CPI, and also above the forecast of a 0.1% increase in core CPI.