The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said on Tuesday that the consumer price index (CPI) – a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost – declined 0.4% on a monthly basis in June and was up 3.5% from a year ago. The monthly decline was the largest since a 0.8% decrease in April 2020.
So-called core prices, which exclude volatile measurements of gasoline and groceries to better assess price growth trends, were unchanged from a month ago and up 2.6% from last year.
Energy prices fell 5.7% on a monthly basis – the energy index’s largest monthly decline since April 2020 – and are up 15.7% from a year ago. BLS noted that the energy index was the largest contributor to the decline in headline inflation, more than offsetting increases in indexes for food and housing.
Food prices rose 0.2% in June and are up 3% in the past year. The food at home index is 2.7% higher than a year ago, while the food away from home index is up 3.4% in the last year and both rose 0.2% on a monthly basis in June.
Housing prices rose 0.1% on a monthly basis, which was the smallest one-month change since January 2021, and are up 3.3% from a year ago. Tenants’ and household insurance costs rose 0.2% from a month ago and are up 5.9% in the last year.