WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Consumer prices in the United States accelerated again in January without calling into question the underlying trend of a slowdown, while the decline initially announced in December was revised, finally highlighting an increase, according to official data released on Tuesday.

The Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI) rebounded to 0.5% in January but showed a slowdown to 6.4% year on year, the weakest pace since October 2021, after peaking at 9.1% in June.

Economists polled by Reuters on average were forecasting a 0.5% rise month-on-month and a 6.2% year-on-year increase.

Monthly data for December has been revised, with the 0.1% decline now a 0.1% rise. On an annual basis, inflation in December stood at 6.5%.

Inflation last month was partly boosted by gasoline prices, which showed a 3.6% increase in January, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the US agency for energy information.

The basic CPI index (“core”), which excludes volatile elements such as food products and energy, rose by 0.4% in January and over one year its increase is 5.6%, against a Reuters consensus of respectively +0.4% and +5.5%.

However, the underlying trend in inflation is showing a slowdown, which should allow the US Federal Reserve to continue its strategy of moderate rate hikes next month.

The American bank has raised its rates since last March by 450 basis points, taking them from near zero to a range of 4.50%-4.75%, with significant increases between May and December. Economists believe the Fed could raise rates above the 5.1% peak it expected in December and hold it there for some time.

In the markets, futures on Wall Street oscillated between rising and falling immediately after the release of this data. At around 2:05 p.m. GMT, futures on the Dow Jones show an opening up 0.13%, while those on the S&P-500 and Nasdaq suggest a drop of 0.14% and 0.25% respectively.

(Report Lucia Mutikani; Claude Chendjou, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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