The BLS report for January, Indicated a 7.5% yoy inflation rate with the month on month being 0.8% unadjusted or 0.6% after adjustments.
With this release comes a variety of other numbers...
I am at the 5.7% annual rate...
Not as bad as the overall, but nothing to be joyful about. Food was up, but the biggest portion was attributable to medical costs. Much of that was beginning of the year co-pays and deductibles. Hopefully, the following months will recede to rather low levels of medical inflation... compared to year's past.
I had previously forecast January to fall between 7.04% ~ 7.40%. That 7.5% was a bit of a shock and now brings the 7.62% rate in February 1982 into play. The current forecast for February numbers, due out in March are 7.59%~7.9%, 7.74% as median.
On to the earnings report.
The hourly real earnings (earnings after inflation adjustment) edged up 1¢. This would seem to indicate that earnings are at least keeping up with inflation. However...
Real weekly earnings slipped, due to a decrease in hours worked. This is the 2nd straight month and is not reassuring, imo.
As for the CPI forecast, more will be clear on Tuesday, with the PPI release. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
No comments:
Post a Comment