WASHINGTON—The consumer price index rose 0.2% in April and increased 2.2% year-over-year, according to data released in a new NAFCU Macro Data Flash report.
Energy prices increased 1.1% in April and were up 9.2% year-over-year. Food prices rose 0.2% during the month, following a 0.3% increase in March. On a year-over-year basis, food prices were up 0.5%.
Year-over-year core CPI growth decelerated to 1.9%. This was the first time that core CPI growth had been below 2% since October 2015, NAFCU indicated.
"Core inflation barely edged up" NAFCU Director of Research and Chief Economist Curt Long wrote in the report. He noted that lower costs for vehicles, medical care and mobile-phone services contributed to the slowdown.
The Federal Reserve’s preferred marker for inflation, personal consumption expenditure (PCE) inflation, slowed to 1.8% in March after exceeding the committee's 2% target for the first time since 2012 in February.
"Despite softer readings of inflation lately, a rate hike in June is still more likely than not," Long added.