Latest Consumer Price Index Stories

Annual retail inflation in Britain fell to its lowest rate in 49 years in January, staying just above zero, the National Statistics Office said. The Retail Price Index fell to an annual rate of 0.1 percent during the month, down from December's 0.9 percent, The Times of London reported Tuesday. The retail inflation rate was 0.5 percent in March 1960, The Times said. Much of the month's price decline came from falling oil prices and mortgage interest rates declining in the wake of the Bank of...

Inflation in China slowed slightly in January as consumer demand is falling, an economic analyst said. The consumer price index rose 1.2 percent in December from a year ago but only 1 percent in January, the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday. Economist Li Huiyong at brokerage firm Shenyin-Wanguo said falling demand and tighter money supplies had slowed inflation, Xinhua reported. Inflation peaked at 8.7 percent in February last year. January's rise was the slowest increase since...

THE CONFERENCE BOARD LEADING ECONOMIC INDEX (LEI) FOR THE U.S. AND RELATED COMPOSITE ECONOMIC INDEXES FOR DECEMBER 2008 NEW YORK, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- This month's release incorporates annual benchmark revisions to the composite indexes, which bring them up-to-date with revisions in the source data. These revisions do not change the cyclical properties of the indexes. The indexes are updated throughout the year, but only for the previous six months. Data revisions that fall outside of...

Inflation in Canada rose 1.2 percent in December despite falling gasoline prices, down from 2 percent a month earlier, Statistics Canada said Friday. Excluding gasoline, the Consumer Price Index rose 2.6 percent in the 12 months to December, down slightly from the 2.8 percent increase in November, the government agency said. Gasoline prices in December were 25.8 percent below levels of December 2007, and marked the largest drop since the inception of the gasoline price index in 1949,...

Discounts, tax cuts and falling commodity prices pushed Britain's inflation rate to its largest decline in 17 years, the government said. Britain's Consumer Price Index dropped from 4.1 percent in November to 3.1 percent in December, The Times of London reported Tuesday. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, fell 1.1 percent, down from 2 percent in November. The Bank of England has predicted the CPI could drop to 1 percent in 2009. Jonathan Loynes at Capital Economics...

The Consumer Price Index dropped by 0.7 percent in December, falling for the fifth consecutive month, the U.S. Department of Labor said Tuesday. Prices fell 1.7 percent nationally in November. The decline in December fell short economists expectations, but still indicates a reduction in consumer spending. Economic expectations do not change the reality of the figures, but mark how much of a jolt markets might take. In December, core inflation, taking out the influences of food and energy...

Inflation is easing in China but a Merrill Lynch report says China's economy could experience deflation as early as at the start of the New Year. China's consumer inflation and wholesale price inflation have been dropping since the start of 2008, when economists were concerned about preventing the overheating of the economy. At the end of November, China's annual consumer price index stood at 2.4 percent, down from 4 percent in October and from February's 12-year high of 8.7 percent....

China said Thursday its annual inflation rate slowed to 2.4 percent in November, the seventh straight month of decline. The National Bureau of Statistics said the November consumer price index compared with 4 percent in October and February's 12-year-high of 8.7 percent. November's 2.4 percent also was the lowest since January 2007. The agency said food prices, which account for more than a third of China's CPI, rose 5.9 percent from year-ago levels, down from 8.5 percent in October and 9.7...

The Consumer Price Index dropped by its sharpest rate in 61 years in October, the U.S. Department of Labor said Wednesday. The drop of 1 percent in the headline figure meant consumers had taken their collective foot off the the gas pedal and applied it to the brakes of the economy. It's funny that just a few months ago everyone was wringing their hands over inflation, Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight told The New York Times. It's gone. It's over. Core inflation, excluding...

By McGranahan, Leslie In July 2008, food prices were 6.0% above their July 2007 level. This article examines how different household types have been affected by the recent rapid rise in food prices. Increases in food prices have been grabbing headlines recently. In this Chicago Fed Letter, I investigate the ex- penditure patterns of different types of households to discover which house- holds have been most affected by food price changes. I find that food price increases have had a more...