[Anchor]
The pace of consumer inflation in the United States appears to have eased. Expectations are rising that the Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, will freeze benchmark interest rates again next month, leading to gains in the S&P and Nasdaq indices.
Kim Hyunwoo reports from New York.
[Reporter]
U.S. consumer prices for last month were tallied at a 3.4% increase compared to the same month a year ago.
Following 4.2% in May and 3.5% in June, July recorded a lower rate of 3.4%.
In addition, prices rose by a mere 0.1% compared to the previous month in June, indicating that inflation remained virtually stagnant.
Core consumer prices, excluding volatile energy and food prices, rose 2.5% from a year ago.
[Kayla Bruun / Senior Economist, Morning Consult: The most positive number is that the core consumer price inflation rate dropped to 2.5%. This is the lowest level since February of this year. It is still higher than the Fed's target, but it is moving in the right direction.]
By category, energy prices fell by 1.5%, and accommodation costs such as hotel lodging dropped 2.8% as the World Cup concluded.
On the other hand, dining-out prices rose 0.3%, while medical expenses and airfares also showed increases.
Following recent sluggish job reports, the cooling inflation trend has heightened market expectations that benchmark interest rates could be frozen again next month.
[Kayla Bruun / Senior Economist, Morning Consult: The inflation data held no major surprises. Considering the potential softening of the labor market confirmed in the recent employment report, we can say that the likelihood of the Fed freezing interest rates has increased slightly.]
Following the release of the inflation data, the New York stock market today (the 13th) showed strong momentum from the start, with the S&P and Nasdaq closing higher.
(Video by Lee Hee-hoon | Video Editing by Kim Jin-won)
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