Inflation accelerated more than December, marking the thirty-third consecutive month with annual prices rising significantly faster than the two percent target seen as healthy by the Federal Reserve.
The consumer-price index, the Labor Department’s broad measurement of what consumers pay for goods and services, rose 3.4 in December from a year earlier.
Economists were expecting a year-0ver-year increase of 3.2 percent. The 12-month gain was 3.1 percent in November.
Compared with the prior month, the CPI was up 0.3 percent, an acceleration from the gain of 0.2 percent in November and faster than the 0.2 percent forecast.
Consumer inflation hit its recent peak of 9.2 percent in June of 2022 and has since retreated as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates at a record pace and the Biden administration’s spending was reined in by lawmakers worried about extraordinarily large budget deficits.
