Washington (Reuters) – Consumer prices in the United States slowed down unexpectedly in May, under the decline in petrol tariffs, but inflation could accelerate in the coming months due to customs duties imposed by the Donald Trump administration.
The index measuring the evolution of consumer prices (ICC) emerged at +0.1% in May over a month, while the economists interviewed by Reuters expected +0.2%, a percentage identical to that of April, show the data of the labor department published on Wednesday.
Over one year, the increase in the CPI index is 2.4% in May, a lower pace than expected by consensus (+2.5%), after an increase of 2.3% in April.
By excluding the volatile elements such as food and energy, the underlying consumer price index (“Core CPI”) slowed down at +0.1% in May over a month, against a consensus at +0.3%, after +0.2 in April.
In annual rate, the CORE CPI comes out at +2.8%, against a consensus of +2.9% and after +2.8% in April.
Inflation figures are slow to react to customs duties imposed by President Donald Trump on the main business partners in the United States, as most of the retailers still sell accumulated products before the entry into force of surcharge.
Economists, however, expect inflation to accelerate during the second half of the year.
The term contracts on the American stock market indices turned upon after the publication of the report, which calms the concerns about the impact of customs duties on pricing.
They give an opening up 0.24% for the Dow Jones, 0.3% for the Standard & Poor’s-500 and 0.41% for the Nasdaq.
Operators now estimate at 70% the probability of a quarter of a quarter of the Fed’s key rate by September, against 57% before the report.
The yields of the sovereign debt, which were up before the publication of inflation figures, thus passed in the red: the rate of Treasuries at ten years loses 3.4 base points at 4.4401%. The yield of borrowing at two years, the most sensitive to anticipation on rates, fell from almost 6 base points to 3.9535%.
The dollar loses 0.39% against a basket of reference currencies.
(Written by Lucia Mutikani, Diana Mandiá, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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