The consumer price index (CPI) picked up to 2.9 percent in August, accelerating from 2.7 percent on a year-on-year basis in July, said the Labor Department, as President Donald Trump’s tariffs filter through the world’s biggest economy.
For now, economists are trying to gauge if these duties will bring about a one-off price increase or lead to persistently higher costs.
On a month-on-month basis, CPI rose 0.4 percent in August, the report said, also picking up from 0.2 percent in July.
And a measure of underlying inflation, stripping away the volatile food and energy components, was up by 3.1 percent from a year ago.
All eyes are on inflation numbers this week, given that these typically have some bearing on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decisions.But “the Fed is poised to start cutting rates next week, almost regardless of what the CPI figure prints,” Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic told AFP.
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