Inflation figures for the United States for the month of August were published on Tuesday 13 September. Without being bad, they are not as good as expected by observers.
With our correspondent in Washington, Guillaume Naudin
Of course, for the second month in a row, it’s a slowdown. Year-on-year inflation rose from 8.5% in July to 8.3% last month, but it remains high. Above all, while they had remained stable between June and July, prices rose again very slightly by 0.1% between July and August. And yet, the prices of air travel or gasoline have fallen. The price at the pump has even been falling continuously since June.
Core inflation on the rise
But this does not offset increases in other household expenditure items such as food, electricity or housing. In fact, underlying inflation, from which we deduct the more volatile energy and food prices, has started to rise again, above 6% over one year.
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All this should encourage the US Federal Reserve to continue its policy of raising rates at its meeting next week. Joe Biden, campaigning ahead of the midterm elections in November, was probably hoping for better. He had also organized an event to celebrate the adoption of his so-called inflation reduction law a month ago.
In his speech, he modestly preferred not to comment on the figures of the day. Instead, he is content with a statement in which he admits that it will take even more time and determination to bring inflation down.
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