A key inflation gauge heavily relied on by the Federal Reserve when setting interest rates inched down in May but remained elevated near multi-decade highs at a level more than twice the central bank’s inflation target, suggesting the Fed’s fight to relieve price pressures will be drawn out.
The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the so-called core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, rose by 4.7 percent year-over-year in May, the Commerce Department reported on June 30.
While that’s a slight decline from the prior month’s 4.9 percent pace of growth and roughly in line with analysts’ estimates, it’s more than double the 2 percent inflation target aimed for by the U.S. central bank….