Inflation as measured by the Federal Reserve’s preferred indicators cooled down in July to a 6.3 percent year-over-year clip, compared with 6.8 percent in June. Stripping out food and energy prices, the personal consumption expenditure index rose by 4.6 percent over the same period 12 months earlier, down from 4.8 percent in June.
Overall inflation declined by 0.1 percent in July versus June, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. And although “core” inflation grew by 0.1 percent, that was softer than market expectations. Still, the effects of inflation and a cooling economy were being felt by consumers as income grew by just 0.2 percent in July and spending grew by only 0.1 percent, down from 0.7 percent and 1 percent, respectively, a month earlier.
“The American people are starting to get some relief from high prices,” President Joe Biden said in a statement after the inflation numbers came out Friday morning. “We have more work to do. We have to help families who have been squeezed by decades living paycheck to paycheck. But today confirms that our economic plan is building the economy from the bottom up and the middle out and we are making progress.”
