Analysis of Recent Inflation Data and Implications for Economic Policies

Inevitably markets reacted to US consumer price inflation headlines, but the details did matter. There is very strong evidence against inflation stickiness. Aside from rents and fictitious owners’ equivalent rents, there is deflation in almost every consumer price subcategory somewhere in the US. With collapsing clothing prices in Tampa or plunging communication prices in Chicago, it is difficult to argue that structural inflation stickiness exists when every key sector has deflation somewhere in the country.