In October 2022, consumer inflation reached 7.7 percent from a year earlier, and 0.4 percent from September 2022. This slowdown from 8.2 percent in September 2022, was the smallest increase since January 2022. A different gauge known as core inflation, which excludes food and energy, has increased by 6.3 percent in the past 12 months, and 0.3 percent since September 2022.
Price hikes in the United States moderated last month, and the pressures of inflation gripping the country might be easing as the economy slows and the consumers can grow more cautious.
These numbers were lower than expected by the economists. The used car prices were driving the inflation slowdown from September 2022 to October 2022, which had dropped for a fourth consecutive month, and the prices for medical care and clothing were also down. The increase in the food prices were also slowed, and energy prices rebounded in October 2022 after having declined in August 2022 and September 2022.
With tentative easing of inflation, the Federal Reserve is expected to keep increasing interest rates to stop high price increases. Paul Ashworth, chief economist at Capital Economics for North America, said that they expect this to market the beginning of a long non-inflationary trend, which they think will convince the Federal Reserve to stop hikes early next year. Paul Ashworth added that with supply shortages getting normal, the pressure for deflation is now showing up.
