Fed's preferred inflation reading shows prices jump 3.5% annually
Core personal consumption expenditures rose 0.4% in June
MaxFunds.com Co-Founder Jonas Max Ferris joins 'Kennedy' to discuss the causes of inflation
The core personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, accelerated in June by the most on an annual basis in almost three decades.
Core PCE, which excludes food and energy, increased 3.5% year over year in June, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The reading, which was the highest since July 1991, was up fractionally from last month's 3.4% print.
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Prices rose 0.4% on a monthly basis, slowing from the 0.5% increase in May.
Wall Street analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were anticipating prices would climb 3.7% annually and 0.6% month over month.
Overall, the personal consumption expenditures price index rose 4% year over year and 0.5% in June. Last month, prices increased at a 3.9% annual rate.
Businesses have been grappling with higher costs in a number of areas, ranging from commodities to logistics, as the U.S. economy looks to put the COVID-19 pandemic in the rearview mirror. Lockdowns aimed at slowing the spread of the virus resulted in supply-chain disruptions that have limited output amid a period of strong pent-up demand. That has resulted in a number of companies hiking prices.
The Federal Reserve has said this period of rising prices is transitory and that bottlenecks that have occurred as a result of the pandemic will eventually work themselves out. At that point, the Fed anticipates price pressures will ease.
"Today brought more evidence of surging prices, but they don't appear to be weighing on real consumption as much as we feared," wrote Paul Ashworth, chief economist at research firm Capital Economics.
Friday's report also showed personal income ticked up 0.1% month over month versus a 2.2% decline in May.
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Personal spending was up 1% in June after slipping 0.1% the previous month.
Analysts were expecting income to decline 0.3% and consumption to tick up 0.7%.