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The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge ticked higher in January, a sign that price pressures remain entrenched in the U.S. economy and could lead the Fed to keep raising interest rates well into this year.
Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that consumer prices rose 0.6% from December to January, up sharply from a 0.2% increase from November to December. On a year-over-year basis, prices rose 5.4%, up from a 5.3% annual increase in December.
The report also showed that consumer spending rose 1.8% last month from December after falling the previous month.
All told, Friday’s data provided the latest sign that the economy remains gripped by high inflation despite the Fed’s strenuous efforts to tame it. Last week, the government issued a separate inflation measure — the consumer price index — which showed that prices surged 0.
