WASHINGTON- US monthly consumer prices rose less than initially thought in December, but the overall inflation revisions were mixed, and did not shift expectations on the timing of an anticipated interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve this year.
The annual revisions published by the Labor Department on Friday also showed the consumer price index increasing slightly more than previously reported in October and November.
Prices excluding the volatile food and energy components were unrevised, after rounding, from October through December. All told, the revisions did not materially alter the path of inflation, which is moderating after surging in 2022.
The revised CPI data had been eagerly awaited by financial markets and economists after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller last month flagged them as among the key data pieces he would be watching as policymakers try to gauge progress in their fight against inflation.
“The revisions were much ado about nothing,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. “This is becoming a trend where a Fed official mentions a data release once and then everyone waits with bated breath only to find out that it’s a bunch of noise.”
The consumer price index rose 0.2 percent in December instead of 0.3 percent as reported last month, the revisions of the CPI data published by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed. But data for November was revised up to show the CPI increasing 0.2 percent rather than 0.1 percent as previously estimated.
The CPI gained 0.1 percent in October. Prices were previously reported to have been unchanged in October. The 3-month annualized increase in the CPI was revised up to a 1.9 percent rate from a 1.8 percent pace.
The revisions emanated from the recalculation of seasonal adjustment factors, the model used by the government to strip out seasonal fluctuations from the data. This routine procedure, which the BLS undertakes every year, covered data from January 2019 through December 2023. The year-on-year data, which is not seasonally adjusted, was unrevised. – Reuters
