US consumer inflation slows to 3.1% as economy cools

Consumer inflation in the United States edged down for a second straight month in November, government data showed Tuesday, in encouraging news for policymakers seeking to get prices under control.

The consumer price index (CPI), a closely eyed gauge of inflation, rose 3.1 percent from a year ago, said the Department of Labor, down from a 3.2 percent rate in October.

The slowdown comes on the back of falling gas prices, with the gasoline index dropping 6.0 percent.


But the inflation figure was slightly hotter than expected, and CPI rose 0.1 percent between October and November.

Excluding the volatile food and energy components, CPI was 4.0 percent.

The numbers on Tuesday were released shortly before the Federal Reserve opens its final policy meeting of the year.

Central bank officials have rapidly lifted the benchmark lending rate since last year to tame stubborn inflation, and the CPI figure has come down sharply from its 9.1 percent peak in June 2022.

Analysts largely expect the Fed to keep interest rates at the current level as the effects of existing rate hikes ripple through the world's biggest economy.

"The inflation numbers have little implication for the Fed's December meeting," said Michael Pearce, lead US economist at Oxford Economics.

"Officials have widely signaled an extended pause and won't react based on one months' data," he told AFP ahead of the latest report.