Inflation Watch

The Labor Dept. reported yesterday that the index of consumer prices was down 0.3% in November and was up 1.3% year over year vs. 1.7% in October. Much of the decline was due to falling gasoline prices which make up about 5% of the index and were down 11% year over year. This was the biggest one month drop since December 2008.

Excluding food and energy core CPI rose 0.1% in November and 1.7% year over year.

With gasoline prices expected to fall further this index is most likely on a downward path in the near future. One metric to watch is wage growth. A separate report Wednesday showed Americans’ wages are picking up as the labor market strengthens. Americans’ real average weekly earnings rose 0.9% in November from the prior month. That reflected a 0.6% rise in inflation-adjusted hourly earnings and a 0.3% increase in the average workweek.

(Source: WSJ)

The Fed’s preferred inflation measure, which is the price index for personal consumption expenditures increased 1.5% in August over previous twelve months. August 2014 was the 28th straight month this number has been below Fed’s 2% target. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the core PCE indicator has also increased at 1.5% year over year. This has slightly decelerated from 1.6% in July’14.

The CPI measure rose 1.7% year over year in Aug’14, which was a marked slowdown from the better than 2% pace recorded in the previous four months.

The CPI measure has historically run about half a percentage point below the PCE price index.

(Source: WSJ)

Consumer prices rose modestly in July, a sign inflation remains in check as the Federal Reserve winds down its bond-buying program. The price index for personal consumption expenditures–the Fed’s preferred inflation measure–increased 1.6% in July from a year earlier, the Commerce Department said Friday. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core prices climbed 1.5% year over year.

Both overall and core prices rose at the same annual pace in July as they did in June, suggesting inflation pressures remained at bay. Compared to a month earlier, each measure was up just 0.1%. Inflation continues to run below the 2% target the Fed sets as a gauge of price stability and healthy growth. The PCE price index has run below 2% for 27 consecutive months.

Still, prices have picked up since the start of the year, and the Fed projects they’ll steadily climb toward its target by the end of 2015. As recently as February, the index showed prices growing at just 1% year over year.

A separate measure also shows inflation in check. The Labor Department’s consumer-price index rose 2% in July from a month earlier. In May and June, the index had risen 2.1% year over year.

The CPI historically runs about half a percentage point higher than the PCE price index, which employs different statistical methods.

(Source: WSJ, BLS)

Is the Euro Zone dealing with the same deflationary issues that the Fed was grappling with a few years ago?

With the drop in headline euro-zone inflation to 0.3% in August from 0.4% in July, calls for further ECB action—including large purchases of sovereign bonds—are getting louder. Clearly, inflation is far adrift of the ECB’s target of “below, but close to” 2%.

With core inflation stable, it is hard to see deflation as a threat, even if market-based measures of inflation expectations have proved wobbly recently. More relevant in any case is the attitude of consumers and entrepreneurs to inflation. If lower food and energy prices are proving a cushion for stretched individuals and businesses, then that may be no bad thing. But the longer low inflation persists, the more it may become a problem if, for instance, it starts to drive wage settlements.

(Source: WSJ)

The Labor Department measures wages and salaries in many different forms:

• Average Hourly Wage
• Median Weekly Earnings
• Employment Cost Index
• Employer Costs for Employee Compensation
• Compensation per Hour
  
• Unit Labor Costs

Each measure has pros and cons when it comes to capturing true wage trends and inflation pressures in the economy. Unit labor costs, for instance, take into account productivity, but growth can be very volatile. The average hourly wage is timely and broad-based, but it can be affected by shifts in employees between high- and low-paying positions.

To find out which best correlates with quarterly core inflation, the J.P. Morgan economists regressed yearly inflation (using the Fed’s preferred measure, the personal consumption expenditure index excluding food and energy) on year-over-year percent changes of the various wage gauges.

The best fit came with the employment cost index. “It would seem the ECI’s strengths outweigh its weaknesses,” they conclude.

(Source: WSJ)

Japan’s consumer prices rose 3.3 percent in June from a year earlier for the 13th consecutive month of increase, but the pace of increase has been slowing in recent months, government data showed Friday.

The core consumer price index, excluding volatile fresh food prices, stood at 103.4 against the 2010 base of 100, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said. The figure was in line with private-sector forecasts.

The data have been affected by the consumption tax hike since April. After excluding the direct effect of the tax rise, the inflation rate in June comes to 1.3 percent, according to the Bank of Japan, which aims to achieve a 2 percent rise in or around fiscal 2015 in order to revive the country’s economy.

The nationwide core CPI continued rising, but the pace of rise was slower than 1.4 percent in May and 1.5 percent in April, both without the effects of the tax rise.

Regarding the outlook, the BOJ expects the consumer inflation rate to move around 1.25 percent for some time amid waning upward pressure from import prices, particularly those for energy. But the central bank also says inflationary pressure will continue, partly citing improving domestic demand.

The April 1 tax hike, which raised the rate to 8 percent from 5 percent, is weighing on consumer spending in the country. The BOJ has been cooperating with the government in boosting the economy out of nearly two decades of deflation, introducing in April 2013 aggressive monetary easing measures to achieve the 2 percent inflation goal within around two years.

The apparent slowdown in consumer inflation as confirmed by the latest price data may add to prospects the BOJ will remain committed to keeping its monetary policy sufficiently accommodative. But as the CPI is still moving roughly in line with the bank’s forecasts, it is less likely that the BOJ will immediately take action to additionally ease the policy.