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E-mail Xinhua, November 28, 2024
WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure, rose 2.3 percent in October compared with a year ago, as inflation continued to cool amid high interest rates, the Commerce Department reported on Wednesday.
The latest figure came after the measure ticked up from 2.4 percent in June to 2.5 percent in July, dropped to 2.3 in August and then to 2.1 in September, according to the department's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).
The PCE gauge takes into account how consumers change their behavior in light of higher prices, and is a broader measure of consumer behavior than the consumer price index (CPI).
The so-called core PCE price index, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose 2.8 percent in October from a year ago, slightly up from the figure in September. The latest data is still above the Fed's inflation target of 2 percent.
At the last policy meeting, the U.S. Federal Reserve slashed the target range for the federal funds rate by 0.25 percentage points to 4.5 percent to 4.75 percent amid cooling inflation and a weakening labor market, marking the second rate cut in this easing cycle.
Fed officials expressed confidence that inflation is easing, and are expected to gradually lower interest rates going forward, according to minutes from the Nov. 6-7 meeting released Tuesday.
The minutes did not address potential policy under the next administration, but some economists raised concerns that President-elect Donald Trump's proposed additional tariffs could drive up inflation, potentially complicating the Fed's path of rate cuts.
The Fed will hold its final monetary policy meeting of the year on Dec. 17-18. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group's FedWatch Tool, which acts as a barometer for the market's expectation of the Fed funds target rate, shows that the market currently expects a 66.5 percent probability that the Fed will cut interest rates by 25 basis points at the next meeting. Enditem
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