Inflation slowed slightly to 2.8% in February ahead of Federal Reserve meeting

Fox Business ^ | Eric Revell

[RoosterRedux]

Inflation cooled slightly in February even as the pace of price growth remained well above the Federal Reserve's goal ahead of the central bank's policy meeting next week.

The Labor Department on Wednesday said that the consumer price index (CPI) – a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost – increased 0.2% in February compared with last month, while it rose 2.8% on an annual basis.

Both the annual and monthly increases in headline inflation were cooler than the expectations of LSEG economists.

So-called core prices, which include more volatile measurements of gasoline and food to better assess price growth trends, were up 0.2% from the prior month and 3.1% on an annual basis, slower than the estimates of LSEG economists.

The report showed that inflationary pressures in the U.S. economy remain persistent despite progress in bringing inflation closer to the Federal Reserve's 2% target over the past few years.

High inflation has created severe financial pressures for most U.S. households, which are forced to pay more for everyday necessities like food and rent. Price hikes are particularly difficult for lower-income Americans, because they tend to spend more of their already-stretched paycheck on necessities and have less flexibility to save money.

Food prices increased 0.2% in February. The index for food at home was unchanged over the month and up just 1.9% over the past 12 months.

[blitz128]

Xidenomics working😎

[blitz128]

Xidenomics working😎

[C210N]

Always good to bear in mind:

Inflation 2% target is planned theft. That actual inflation is around double, it’s just additional theft.

Inflation is created SOLELY by an increase in the “money” supply, or M2. Inflation is manipulated by the creation of fiat.

A $1 bill in 1913 purchases about 2 cents today, 111 years later.

Fiat is unconstitutional. Art 1 Sect 8: “To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof”, by regulating meaning adjust the content of the ***COIN****.

[CFW]

The annual inflation rate in the US eased to 2.8% in February 2025 from 3% in January, below forecasts of 2.9%. Energy costs declined 0.2% year-on-year, following a 1% rise in January which was the first increase in six months.

Gasoline (-3.1% vs -0.2%) and fuel oil (-5.1% vs -5.3%) were lower while natural gas prices soared (6% vs 4.9%). Inflation also slowed for shelter (4.2% vs 4.4%), used cars and trucks (0.8% vs 1%), transportation (6% vs 8%) while prices continued to fall for new vehicles (-0.3% vs -0.3%).

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($766,550 or less) in the US continued to decline to 6.67% in the week ended March 7th 2025, the lowest level since early October, from 6.73% in the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. It compares with a rate of 6.84% a year earlier. Meanwhile, the rate for jumbo loans, or a 30-year mortgage for homes sold for over $806,500, was 6.68%, down 15bps from the previous week.

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The media would be having a parade complete with Mariachi bands if these were the numbers under a Democrat administration.

[nathanbedford]

If employment rises that's good news, but if employment rises and causes inflation, that is bad news.

If inflation decreases that's good news, but if it carries with it job losses and unemployment, that is bad news.

In other words, we are walking a tight rope and a misstep to either side could lead to stagflation.

If inflation spikes interest rates, it will be harder and even impossible to rollover our $37 trillion national debt as our bonds come due. If deflation is connected to large-scale unemployment, federal receipts will contract even as expenditures increase, conceivably making it more difficult to rollover that portion of the debt as it comes due.

Who should be responsible for keeping us safely on the tight rope? Until now -correct that, even now- Congress has been so fiscally irresponsible that it has been only the uniqueness of America's position in the world that has enabled us to escape the consequences of profligacy: we are the reserve currency, we shipped our high wage industrial employment abroad, we imported cheap foreign goods and managed to escape inflation until Biden overreached.

While Congress was spending, it fell upon the Fed to either accommodate Congress' deficits with low interest rates or to impose discipline. To impose discipline, i.e. forcing interest rates up, would constrict the economy and increase unemployment. Since Biden, the Fed no longer has the untrammeled power to stimulate the economy without precipitating inflation.

So the tight rope has gotten shakier and slicker.