WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer prices rose again in August, as rising rents and food prices overshadowed falling pump prices, and year-on-year inflation slowed less than expected, which could provide the Federal Reserve with an additional argument in favor of a sharp hike in interest rates next week.
The CPI price index, which was flat in July, rose 0.1% last month, statistics released by the Labor Department on Tuesday showed, and its year-on-year rise fell to 8.3% after 8.5%, while economists polled by Reuters on average forecast prices falling 0.1% month on month and inflation of 8.1% year on year.
US inflation peaked in June at 9.1%, its highest level since November 1981. It has since eased slightly, thanks among other things to the easing of tensions affecting supply chains and a recovery in consumption. services, the prices of which have increased less than those of manufactured goods.
At the same time, gasoline prices fell sharply after a record high in June of more than five dollars per gallon (one gallon = 3.78 litres): according to figures from the AAA motorist association, they had returned to 3.707 dollars per gallon on average on Tuesday.
The price index excluding energy and food, known as “core CPI”, posted an increase of 0.6% over one month in August after +0.3% in July; over one year, its rise reached 6.3% after 5.9%.
Yields on US Treasuries rose sharply after the announcement of the Labor Department figures, that of two-year securities, the most sensitive to interest rate expectations, rising in a few minutes from just over 3 .51% to over 3.70%.
At the same time, futures contracts on the main Wall Street indices, hitherto oriented upwards, tipped into the red and the dollar appreciated against other major currencies.
The Fed meets next Tuesday and Wednesday its monetary policy committee (FOMC) and the markets are expecting a further rate hike, inflation remaining well above the 2% target set by the central bank.
The institution’s chairman, Jerome Powell, reaffirmed last week that the Fed was “strongly determined” to fight rising prices.
The financial markets are favoring the hypothesis of a three-quarters point increase in the rate target for federal funds (“fed funds”), similar to those decided in June and then in July.
(Report Lucia Mutikani, French version Marc Angrand)