US inflation slows to 6.4%, but price pressures re-emerge

WASHINGTON — The pace of consumer price increases eased again in January compared with a year earlier, the latest sign that the high inflation that has gripped Americans for nearly two years is slowly easing.

At the same time, Tuesday’s consumer price report from the government showed that inflationary pressures in the U.S. economy remain stubborn and are likely to keep prices elevated well into this year. Rising costs will also keep pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark interest rate further and to keep it there through year’s end.

Consumer prices climbed 6.4 percent in January from a year earlier, down from 6.5 percent in December. It was the seventh straight year-over-year slowdown and well below a recent peak of 9.1 percent in June. Yet it remains far above the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent annual inflation target.

And on a monthly basis, consumer prices increased 0.5 percent from December to January, much higher than the 0.1 percent rise from November to December. More expensive gas, food and clothing drove up last month’s figure.

The data show that while inflation is fading, it is likely to do so slowly and unevenly. The government also incorporated annual revisions of its methods into January’s inflation report, which caused monthly increases in the final three months of last year to be higher than originally reported. Combined with January’s price figures, the slowdown in inflation since the fall is now more gradual than it seemed just a few weeks ago.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called “core” prices increased 0.4 percent last month, up from 0.3 percent in December. Core prices rose 5.6 percent from a year ago, down just a tick from December’s 5.7 percent.

In the past three months, core prices have risen at a 4.6 percent annual rate, which is below the year-over-year number and suggests that more declines are coming. But that figure is up from 4.3 percent in December.