CNN’s Egan: Inflation Cooled to 2.4% in January, an Eight-Month Low

EXCERPT:

EGAN: "Well, Kate, look, this is some encouraging news on the cost of living, right? Inflation took a big step in the right direction to start the year off. So, consumer prices, up by 2.4% year over year. That is an improvement from 2.7% in December. That beat expectations, which were for 2.5%. in fact, this is a new eight-month low for annual inflation. Month over month, prices up by 0.2%, also a step in the right direction, also beating expectations. Now, economists look really closely at core inflation, which excludes food and energy. Core inflation came in at 2.5%. That‘s notable because that‘s the lowest annual inflation rate for core since March of 2021, before the inflation crisis. Now, while we can‘t exclude food and energy from our family budgets, that‘s important because economists say that‘s a better indicator for where inflation is going. And when you look at the trend for inflation over the last few years, you can see there‘s been some improvement, right? It‘s been a little bit bumpy on this chart. It‘s been bumpy. But it has improved. There was this uptick in inflation starting last spring after the president slapped massive tariffs on imports. Inflation started to go heat back up up to 3%, but thankfully it‘s trending back down.”