U.S. Consumer Prices Show Moderate Increase in July Amid Rising Tariffs

According to PANews, consumer prices in the United States experienced a moderate rise in July, influenced by increased costs due to import tariffs. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Tuesday that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 0.2% month-over-month, aligning with expectations but slightly lower than June's 0.3% increase. Year-over-year, the CPI rose by 2.7%, consistent with June's rate but below forecasts. The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, saw a 0.3% increase from the previous month, marking the largest rise since January, and a 3.1% increase year-over-year, surpassing June's 2.9%. The release of the CPI report comes amid growing concerns about the quality of inflation and employment data. Recent budget and staffing cuts by the U.S. government have led to the suspension of some data collection for the CPI basket in various regions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics cited the need to align survey workloads with resource levels as the reason for halting data collection in a city in Nebraska, as well as in Utah and New York. Additionally, the bureau has paused the collection of approximately 15% of sample data in 72 other regions on average. This reduction in data collection has temporarily decreased the availability of price and rent data used to calculate the CPI, prompting the Bureau of Labor Statistics to rely on estimates to fill in the missing information.