Consumer Law

Annual Rate of Consumer Price Inflation Highest in 17 1/2 Years

By Brian Wolfman

Despite their large impact on consumers, we usually don't report on monthly consumer price, unemployment, or other statistics concerning the health of the U.S. (or world) economy. But today's monthly consumer price index figures for July seem noteworthy because the monthly increase was double what had been predicted by economists (.8% actual vs. .4% predicted). The annual rate of inflation measured from last July to this July was 5.6%, the largest annual gain since way back in January 1991. The large increase was led by rapidly rising food and energy prices, both of which are often volatile and thus not considered part of the "core" rate of inflation (which rose from last month at a rate of only .3%). Read the Washington Post story here.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on August 14, 2008 (boomark / email).