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August Saw Accelerated CPI As Well As A Surge In Oil Prices
Last Updated on: November 14th, 2024
As per the latest data released by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, consumer prices accelerated more in the month of August. This is because of a surge in oil prices which contributed to a rise in headline inflation. The BLS released the data on Wednesday morning.
According to Yahoo Finance,
“The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.6% over last month and 3.7% over the prior year in August, an acceleration from July’s 0.2% monthly increase and 3.2% annual gain in prices. The year-over-year increase was slightly higher than economist forecasts of a 3.6% annual jump, according to data from Bloomberg.”
Most of the increases in price happened due to a rise in energy prices. Last Tuesday. oil prices hit new year-to-date highs, as the West Texas Intermediate was approximately $89/ barrel, while the Brent Crude futures were almost $92/ barrel. Since November 2022, this was the highest level of increase in oil prices.
According to data from Bloomberg, the “core” prices, which strip out the more volatile costs of food and gas, climbed 4.3% in August as compared to last year. This was also a slowdown from July’s 4.7% annual increase. Furthermore, there was a rise of 0.3% in the monthly core prices as well, which was a bit higher than what economists expected (0.2% month-over-month gain).
The energy index decreased by 3.6% for the twelve months ending in August. Furthermore, the price of gas rose by 10.6% in August, as compared to only an increase of 0.2% last month. The shelter index increased 0.3% on a month-over-month basis, while, as compared to last year, it increased by 7.3%.
Furthermore, with the rise in core inflation, the prices of rent also continued to spike. The rent and owner’s equivalent index rose by 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively (on a monthly basis). The owner’s equivalent rent is the hypothetical rent that homeowners would have to pay.
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