by By Lucia Mutikani
Washington (Reuters) -U’s consumer prices rose moderately in July, although the increasing costs for goods due to the import rates led to a measure of underlying inflation that made the biggest profit in six months.
The consumer price index rose by 0.2% last month after winning 0.3% in June, said the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the labor department on Tuesday. In the 12 months to July, the CPI rose 2.7% after rising 2.7% in June. Economists interviewed by Reuters had risen the CPI by 0.2% and an increase of 2.8% on an annual basis.
Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the CPI rose by 0.3%, the biggest profit since January, after climbing 0.2% in June. The so -called Core CPI rose by 3.1% on an annual basis in July after an increase of 2.9% in June.
The Federal Reserve follows various inflation measures for its target of 2%. Prior to the CPI data, the financial markets expected that the US Central Bank would reduce the reduction of interest rates in September after the weak employment report of July and sharp downward revisions of the non -farming wage lists for May and June.
The Fed left its benchmark at night interest in the reach of 4.25% -4.50% last month for the fifth consecutive time since December.
The CPI report was published in the midst of the solution for the quality of inflation and employment reports after cuts in budget and staff that led to the suspension of data collection for parts of the CPI basket in some areas throughout the country.
Those worries were reinforced by President Donald Trump, who was fired Erika Mceltarfer, the head of the BLS, at the beginning of this month after job growth of the maternity speed in July, reinforced by sharp downward revisions of the non-Farm payroll of May and June.
Suspension of data collection
The suspension of data collection followed years of what economists described and the under -financing of the BLS among both Republican and Democratic administrations. The situation has been exacerbated by the unprecedented campaign of the Trump -white house to reform the government through deep cuts and massive dismissals of public employees.
With reference to the need to set up “survey workload with resource levels”, the BLS CPI data collection has fully suspended in one city in Nebraska, Utah and New York. It has also hired the collection on 15% of the sample in the other 72 areas.
This influenced both the price investigation of the raw materials and the services, as well as the housing, the BLS said that it resulted in the number of prices collected and the number of rental prices that were used to temporarily calculate the CPI. This has led to the BLS imputations used to fill in the missing information.
