Inflation continued to cool in July, with the latest government figures coming in largely as expected and doing nothing to upend expectations of an interest rate cut next month by the Federal Reserve.
Wednesday’s report from the Labor Department had consumer prices rising only 0.2% from June to July after falling some the prior month for the first time in four years. Prices rose 2.9% in July from a year earlier, down from 3% in June, marking the smallest 12-month increase since March 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
Almost all of the increase in July stemmed from higher rental costs and housing prices, the government noted.
The inflation numbers came in as expected, with “no evidence of any crash in prices, as one might have expected to see in a crashing economy,” Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist, stated in a research note. “Today’s report will raise confidence within the Fed that inflation is indeed on a sustainable path towards 2%,” and opens the door to rate cuts as soon as next month, said Farooqi, adding that the Fed would embark on “a string of modest rate cuts, not panicky big cuts.”
The Fed has hiked interest rates to their highest point in 23 years as it strives to tame inflation while also keeping the U.S. economy afloat. But a weak July jobs report signaled that the labor market could be buckling under the impact of high rates, boosting economists’ forecasts that the central bank is likely to cut its benchmark rate at its September meeting.
While inflation has been at the forefront of concerns, the unexpectedly soft July jobs report had some investors and analysts fretting about the risk of a recession.
—This is breaking news and will be updated.
