{"id":353540,"date":"2025-12-18T15:52:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T15:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/353540\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T15:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T15:52:09","slug":"us-says-price-increases-eased-last-month-but-data-may-be-distorted-and-americans-arent-feeling-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/353540\/","title":{"rendered":"US says price increases eased last month but data may be distorted and Americans aren’t feeling it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 U.S. inflation<\/a> slowed unexpectedly last month according to data that was delayed, and likely distorted, by the government shutdown.<\/p>\n

The Labor Department reported Thursday that its consumer price index rose 2.7% in November from a year earlier. Yet, year-over-year inflation remains well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, and Americans are dismayed by<\/a> the high cost of living.<\/p>\n

The report was delayed eight days by the federal government\u2019s 43-day shutdown, which also prevented the Labor Department from compiling overall numbers for consumer prices and core inflation in October. Thursday\u2019s report gave investors, businesses and policymakers their first look at CPI since the September numbers were released on Oct. 24.<\/p>\n

Consumer prices had risen 3% in September from a year earlier, and forecasters had expected the November CPI to match that year-over-year increase.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s likely a bit distorted,\u2019\u2019 said Diane Swonk, chief economist at the tax and consulting firm KPMG. \u201cThe good news is that it\u2019s cooling. We\u2019ll take a win when we can get it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Still, Swonk added: \u201cThe data is truncated, and we just don\u2019t know how much of it to trust.\u2019\u2019 By disrupting the economy \u2013 especially government contracting \u2013 the shutdown may have contributed to a cooling in prices, she said.<\/p>\n

Energy prices, driven up by sharply higher fuel oil prices, rose 4.2% in November. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation rose 2.6%, compared with a 3% year-over-year gain in September and the lowest since March 2021.<\/p>\n

U.S. inflation remains stubbornly high, partly because of President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to impose double-digit taxes on imports from almost every country on earth along with targeted tariffs<\/a> on specific products like steel, aluminum and autos.<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s tariffs have so far proved less inflationary than economists feared. But they do put upward pressure on prices and complicate matters at the Fed<\/a>, which is trying to decide whether to keep cutting its benchmark interest rate to support a sputtering job market<\/a> or whether to hold off until inflationary pressures ease. The central bank last week decided to reduce the rate for the third time this year, but Fed officials signaled that they expect just one cut in 2026.<\/p>\n

Kay Haigh, global co-head of fixed income and liquidity solutions at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, warned that the November numbers were “noisy … The canceling of the October report makes month-on-month comparisons impossible, for example, while the truncated information-gathering process given the shutdown could have caused systematic biases in the data.<\/p>\n

Story Continues <\/p>\n

“The Fed will instead focus on the December CPI released in mid-January, just two weeks before its next meeting, as a more accurate bellwether for inflation.”<\/p>\n

Trump<\/a> delivered a politically charged speech Wednesday that aired live during prime time by network television, seeking to pin the blame for economic challenges<\/a> on Democrats.<\/p>\n

The speech was a rehash of his recent messaging that has so far been unable to calm public anxiety<\/a> about the rising cost of groceries, housing, utilities and other basic goods.<\/p>\n

As the holiday season approaches, Americans dipping into savings, scouring for bargains and feeling like the overall economy<\/a> is sputtering, a new AP-NORC poll finds.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of U.S. adults say they\u2019ve noticed higher than usual prices for groceries, electricity and holiday gifts<\/a> in recent months, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Roughly half of Americans say it\u2019s harder than usual to afford the things they want to give as holiday gifts, and similar numbers are delaying big purchases or cutting back on nonessential purchases more than they would normally.<\/p>\n

Trump has promised an economic boom, yet inflation has stayed elevated and the job market has weakened sharply in the wake of his import taxes.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s tariffs are taking a toll on Wolverine Worldwide, which makes footwear brands like Merrell and Saucony. Facing extra tariff costs of $10 million this year and $55 million in 2026, the Rockford, Michigan, company had to increase prices between 5% and 8% on some products in June, and will have to raise prices again next year. It\u2019s put a freeze on hiring and capital investments.<\/p>\n

The company is getting squeezed even as it diversifies its sourcing network away from China, which now makes less than 10% of its products. During Trump\u2019s first term, Wolverine shifted production to Vietnam. Now it\u2019s moving to Bangladesh, Cambodia and Indonesia.<\/p>\n

The problem isn\u2019t just the cost of the tariffs. It\u2019s the uncertainty caused by the unpredictable way that Trump rolls them out. \u201cFrom a business leader\u2019s perspective, it\u2019s one thing if there\u2019s bad news,\u201d said Wolverine CEO Christopher Hufnagel. \u201cJust tell me what the bad news is, and I\u2019ll go work to try to solve for it. It\u2019s the uncertainty of how it actually plays out that causes so much trouble because then we\u2019re modeling all these different scenarios and it seems like things can change in the middle of the night.\u201d<\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

AP Retail Writer Anne D’Innocenzio contributed to this story from New York.<\/p>\n

Paul Wiseman And Anne D’innocenzio, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 U.S. inflation slowed unexpectedly last month according to data that was delayed, and likely distorted,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,94,49308,9544,112388,46,44503,2071,90811,12522,862],"class_list":["post-353540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-consumer-price-index","tag-core-inflation","tag-data","tag-diane-swonk","tag-economy","tag-energy-prices","tag-federal-reserve","tag-government-shutdown","tag-labor-department","tag-president-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}