A key measure of inflation in the United States that is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve accelerated once again in September, as the price of goods and services rose upward, The Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Index showed that core prices, excluding the volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.5 percent from the previous month,…

Commentary Yesterday afternoon, the financial markets were roiled by an early release of the Consumer Price Index that turned out to be a fake. It looked real and markets were flooded with sellers because the number came in at 10.2 percent year over year. That would imply more extreme efforts by the Fed to crack…

TOKYO—Japan’s core consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in more than two years in March, raising worries higher energy and food costs could increasingly take a toll on households’ purchasing power. The core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes volatile fresh food prices but includes fuel and broader energy costs, jumped 0.8 percent in…

Some of the United States’ biggest retailers have been accused by a nonpartisan watchdog organization of profiteering from rising inflation levels across the nation. In the new report (pdf) by Accountable.US, companies including Costco Wholesale Corp., Walmart Inc., Target Corp., CVS Health Corp., Kroger Co., and T.J. Maxx parent company TJX Companies Inc. are among those accused…

Commentary The new inflation numbers are out. It’s 8 percent on consumer prices, or so they say. Not even that is believable. More likely, it’s already double digit. The U.S. president blames Russia, clearly hoping the Americans are too dull to understand timelines or economics. Let’s look at the bigger picture. The United States has…

Wholesale prices in the United States rose 0.2 percent in December, with total prices skyrocketing 9.7 percent in 2021, the highest 12-month period on record going back to 2010, according to the producer price index (PPI). This was at half the 0.4 percent Dow Jones estimate, but consumers are still feeling the pinch, with inflation running…

News Analysis Consumer prices jumped 7 percent in 2021, the largest annual increase in nearly four decades. After months of increasing prices, the most pressing question now is whether inflation in the United States has peaked or not? In the latest economic projections by the Federal Reserve, headline inflation is expected to retreat to 2.6 percent…

As the end of the year approaches, people across China see higher prices at grocery stores, gas pumps, and even at home as Beijing tries to tame inflation. According to a December report by China’s Bureau of National Statistics, the country’s producer price indexes (PPI) in October and November were up by 13.5 percent and…

A U.N. agency has warned that a surge in container shipping rates threatens the global economic recovery and could add an additional 1.5 percent to consumer price inflation through 2023. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a Nov. 18 analysis (pdf) that, since the second half of 2020, higher-than-expected demand…

China’s factory gate prices rose at the fastest pace in 26 years in October, but producers have had no way to cover their costs with consumer demand remaining weak. Factory gate prices refer to the cost at which wholesalers purchase materials from producers, not considering transport and distribution fees. The producer price index (PPI) has soared…