Inflation cooled more than expected in May, a welcome sign for the Federal Reserve even as prices remained uncomfortably high for millions of Americans.
The Labor Department said Wednesday that the consumer price index, a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost, was unchanged in May from the previous month. Prices climbed 3.3% from the same time last year. Both of those figures are lower than the 3.4% headline gain and 0.1% monthly increase forecast by LSEG economists.
Another data point that measures underlying inflationary pressures within the economy also moderated last month. So-called core prices, which exclude the more volatile measurements of gasoline and food in order to better assess price growth trends, increased 0.2% in May. From the same time last year, the gauge climbed 3.4% — the lowest reading since 2021.
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