US consumer inflation cools in June on lower energy costs

US consumer inflation cooled more than expected in June, government data showed Tuesday, as energy prices fell momentarily last month on a possible US-Iran deal in the Middle East war.
The consumer price index (CPI) rose by 3.5 percent on a year-on-year basis, down from a 4.2 percent increase in May, said the Labor Department.
The figure marked a pullback from a three-year high in inflation.
Analysts had anticipated a larger 3.8 percent uptick, according to economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.


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But the cooldown is unlikely to entirely ease worries over costs.
Renewed hostilities, and President Donald Trump's recent declaration that a ceasefire was over in the Middle East, have been pushing oil prices upwards again.
Later Tuesday morning, Federal Reserve chairman Kevin Warsh will likely be grilled over progress on lowering inflation in the world's biggest economy when he appears before the House Financial Services Committee at 10am eastern time (1400 GMT).
Warsh, in prepared remarks released Tuesday, is set to vow that the central bank will rid the United States of a years-long "inflation surge."

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"The Fed's number one objective is to get monetary policy right - or as near to it as we possibly can," he says in his remarks.
"If we get policy right, and we will, the inflation surge of the last five years will be a thing of the past."