JUDGING BY the headlines and commentary generated, consumer prices in the United States for December represented a set-back in the disinflation narrative.
The Financial Times noted the Core CPI “came in higher than economists had hoped, in an apparent vindication of the US Federal Reserve’s caution over cutting rates.” In the same newspaper, a commentator claimed the December print confirmed that disinflation’s “last mile” would be a challenge for the Fed.
What does the data say?
US Dec. CPI
The table below makes the usual decomposition of Core CPI into goods and services excluding re-opening related items—previously reported on here, for example.