Did US ‘core’ inflation moderate in May?
The US Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation is expected to have cooled slightly in May, on an annual basis, when data are released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis next week.
The central bank this month raised interest rates by 0.75 percentage points — the most in almost three decades — after consumer price inflation accelerated again in May, having slowed modestly a month previously. The jumbo rate rise prompted a sell-off in US stocks and fuelled bets that the Fed’s aggressive monetary policy will push the US economy into recession.
But Thursday’s core personal consumption expenditures price index print — “core” because it strips out the effects of the volatile food and energy sectors — may show that inflationary pressures slowed in May year on year.