The Bureau of Labor Statistics Released the Inflation Data for the 12 months ending in May on June 10th. Inflation is virtually ZERO at 0.12%. Annual Inflation Retreats Annual Inflation fell again to 0.12% in May from 0.33% in April. CPI Index rose marginally from 256.389 in April to 256.394 (virtually identical). Monthly Inflation for May was 0.002%, April was -0.67%, March was -0.22%, February was 0.27%... typically January through May are highly inflationary so this is VERY unusual. The FED continues to crank up the "printing presses" using "Quantitative Easing" in an effort to stimulate the economy in the wake of COVID-19. FED Funds Rate remains near Zero. Next … [Read more...]
April Inflation Near Zero
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its April Inflation report on May 12th, 2020, for the 12 months through the end of April 2020. Annual Inflation Down Sharply... Again! Inflation fell sharply to 0.33% in April from 1.54% in March, 2.33% in February and 2.49% in January. CPI Index in 258.115 in March fell to 256.389 in April. Monthly Inflation for April was -0.67%, March was -0.22%, February was 0.27% typically January through May are highly inflationary so this is VERY unusual. The FED has massively cranked up the "printing presses" using "Quantitative Easing" in an effort to stimulate the economy in the wake of COVID-19. FED Funds Rate down to near … [Read more...]
July Inflation Down for 3rd Consecutive Month
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their monthly inflation report for July on August 16th. According to the BLS Annual Inflation declined for the third consecutive month. Annual inflation was 1.13% in April, 1.02% in May, 1.01% in June and 0.84% in July. Not only did the rate of inflation fall but actual consumer prices declined as the CPI-U index declined from 241.038 to 240.647. Thus monthly inflation was -0.16%. For the year food at home was down -1.6%, energy was down -10.9%, used cars and trucks were down -3.7%, while overall transportation was down -4.9%. With all of these categories down one might wonder what actually caused the inflation rate to rise that meager … [Read more...]
Deflation Again
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the inflation statistics for the month of March on April 17th. Once again we have slight deflation on an Annual basis. The Consumer Price index (CPI-U) at the end of March 2015 was 236.119 while it was 236.293 at the end of March 2014. So overall prices are just a hair lower a full year later. That means there was -0.07% inflation and as we all know negative inflation on an annual basis is called Deflation. Because the BLS rounds all their results to one decimal place they have rounded it to -0.1% , which is what they said it was in January as well. Rounded to two places it is -0.09% for January, -0.03% for February and -0.07% for March which … [Read more...]
