The Bureau of Labor Statistics published its latest report of the U.S CPI for December 2012. According to the latest report, the consumer price index remained unchanged after it had decreased by 0.3% in the previous month; in annual terms the US CPI rose by 1.7%. The consumer price index sans food and energy inched up again by 0.1% during December and by 1.9% in the past twelve months.
The prime reason for the stagnation in the U.S. consumer price index was related to the opposite directions of energy and food prices took: the energy index declined by 1.2% (M-2-M) during December; the food index, on the other hand, rose by 0.2%; in annual terms the energy index increased by 0.5%; among the energy products, the gasoline led the fall with a 2.3% drop during the previous month. During the past twelve months, the food index rose by 1.8%.
The core U.S inflation (CPI sans energy and food) edged up again by 0.1% during December and by 1.9% during the past 12 months. These figures coincided with the recent U.S PPI report, in which the core PPI edged up by 0.1% during last month.
In the previous monthly report for November 2012 CPI fell by 0.3% and the core CPI increased by 0.1% (M-2-M).
The chart below shows the percent changes (M-O-M) of the U.S. CPI during the past couple of years (up to date).
Since the core CPI continues to rally, it could mean the U.S economy is still slowly progressing. This news doesn’t seem to have much of an effect on the direction of the U.S dollar against other currencies or commodities rates.
In Europe, the CPI also remained unchanged as the annual inflation remained at 2.2%.
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